Chhattisgarh: 14 Naxals Surrender In Dantewada District
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Fourteen naxals, two of them carrying rewards of Rs one lakh each on their heads, surrendered in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Thursday, police said.
The ultras, who were active in south Bastar region, turned themselves in before senior police and CRPF officials at Kirandul police station.
They were disillusioned with the “hollow Maoist ideology” and were encouraged by the police’s `Lon Varratu’ (return to home) campaign, officials claimed.
Baman Midiami (35), who was head of the Dandakaranya Adivasi Kisan Mazdoor Sangthan, a Maoist front, and militia commander Raju Midiami (30) were carrying rewards of Rs 1 lakh each on their heads, said district Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava.
Others were active lower-rung cadres.
The surrendered naxals were given immediate aid of Rs 10,000 each and will be rehabilitated as per the government’s rules, the SP said.
`Lon Varratu’ means return to your village/home’ in the Gondi language.
Under the campaign, Dantewada police has put up posters and banners in the native villages of at least 1,600 Naxals, most of whom are carrying cash rewards on their heads, and appealed them to give up violence.
Since the campaign was launched in June 2020, 240 Naxals have surrendered in the district, SP Pallava said.
In 2020 (till August 15), deaths further reduced from 137 to 102 in comparison with the corresponding period of 2019, it stated.
The combined fatalities of civilians and security force personnel stood at 263 in 2017, 240 in 2017, 202 in 2019 and 102 in 2020 (till August), the ministry had stated.
The MHA states that between 2004 and 2019, as many as 8,197 people have been killed by the LWE in different parts of India and the majority of the civilians killed are tribals, often branded as ‘police informers’ before being brutally tortured and killed.