Telangana: 38 Maoists including two minors surrender before Kothagudem police

The naxals, from different parts of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh, are impressed with the activities being carried out by the district police for adivasis’ welfare, says SP

Kothagudem: As many as 38 members of CPI (Maoist) party surrendered before Kothagudem police, taking the number of Maoists who surrendered in the district since January this year to 265.

A statement from Superintendent of Police B Rohith Raju on Friday said the Maoists surrendered as they were impressed with the activities being carried out by the district police as well as CRPF 81 Bn and 141 Bn for adivasis’ welfare and development.

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All the surrendered Maoists, including Sodi Jonga of PLGA 9th Platoon of South Batar DVC and Nupa Pojja of the PLGA 1st Platoon, were from different parts of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh. There were eight female and 30 male members among them.

Besides the two party members, 16 were militia members; seven were village committee members (VCMs), six were Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (KMS) members, three were Chetana Natya Manch (CNM) members and four Grama Rakshaka Dalam (GRD) members. There were two minors among the 38 surrendered Maoists.

SP Rohith Raju said that for some time now the Maoists had lost support from adivasis as they were thwarting the development of tribal areas. Besides, innocent tribal people and their cattle were often getting killed or injured in blasts of landmines planted by Maoists. This had made adivasis distance themselves from the Maoists and their outdated ideologies.

If the Maoists working underground wanted to surrender, they could contact their nearest police station or higher officials directly or through their family members. All rehabilitation benefits offered by the State government would be extended to them, the SP added.

Bhadrachalam ASP Vikrant Kumar Singh, SB Inspector Srinivas and RI (Operations) Ravi were present.