Bastar Witnesses Mass Surrender Of Naxals For 3rd Day, 41 Ultras Lay Down Arms In Bijapur

Mass surrender of Naxals in Bastar continued for the third day on Wednesday with 41 Naxals, including 12 women, laying down arms in Bijapur in the afternoon.

Of them, 32 carried a combined bounty of Rs 1.19 crore, Bijapur district superintendent of police Jitendra Yadav said.

The 41 surrendered Maoists included four People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) battalion number one members, three area committee members, four militia platoon commanders, and one deputy commander, six militia platoon members, according to the police officer.

Thirty-nine of these 41 surrendered Naxals belonged to the south sub-zonal bureau of Maoists, who were associated with the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), Telangana State Committee, and the Dhamtari-Gariaband-Nuapada divisions of the banned outfit.

Nine of them carried a bounty of Rs eight lakh each.

While three other cadres carried a reward of Rs five lakh each, 12 cadres had a bounty of Rs two lakh each on their heads.

Eight others carried a reward of Rs one lakh each.

While 28 Maoists surrendered in Narayanpur in south Bastar on Tuesday, 15 Naxals laid down arms in Suka in south Bastar on Monday.

Hence, in the last three days, 84 Maoists, both middle and lower rung leaders, carrying a cumulative bounty of Rs 2.53 crore, have surrendered in south Bastar.

More than 1,000 middle and lower rung leaders of the banned outfit have surrendered in Bastar in the last six months in the aftermath of the neutralization of over two dozen top Naxals in form of killing in the encounters and surrenders in the region.

Prominent among them included CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju who was killed in an encounter with security forces in Abujhmad in south Bastar in May this year and Maoists’ military commission chief Madvi Hidma, who was eliminated in an encounter in Andhra Pradesh earlier this month.