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Raipur: Twenty Maoists, including a dozen senior cadres, on Sunday surrendered along with automatic weapons like AK 47 in Kanker under north Bastar in Chhattisgarh. The surrendered Maoists included one divisional committee secretary, four divisional committee members (DVCMs), and nine area committee members (ACMs). Keshkal divisional committee secretary Mukesh, carrying a reward of Rs ten lakh, was among the surrendered Maoists, police said. While each divisional committee member carries a bounty of Rs eight lakh, an area committee member carries a reward of Rs five lakh. All the 21 surrendered Maoists, including 13 females, belonged to the North Sub Zonal Bureau of the banned CPI (Maoist). As many as eighteen weapons were surrendered by them. The weapons returned to the police by the surrendered Naxals were three AK 47 rifles, four Self-Loaded Rifles (SLRs), two INSAS rifles, six number of .303 rifles, two number of single shot rifles, and one Barrel Grenade Launcher (BGL). “Official legal procedures are being carried out for the rehabilitation and reintegration of these 21 surrendered cadres into the society”, Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj said. This was the second mass surrender of Naxals in Bastar in the past ten days. On October 17, as many as 210 Naxals including one Central Committee Member (CCM) and 108 other senior cadres of the banned outfit surrendered at Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar, along with 153 weapons, including 92 automatic rifles. This was the biggest mass surrender of Maoists in Bastar. Senior Maoist cadres among those who surrendered at Jagdalpur on October 17 included four members of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), one Regional Committee Member (RCM), 21 DVCMs, 61 ACMs, and 22 members of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), besides the CCM Rupesh alias T Vasudev Rao. Their surrender has made Abujhmad and North Bastar, two rebel- strongholds in Bastar, free of Maoist influence.
