Raipur, India, Oct 4: More than 100 Maoist insurgents, including nearly 50 carrying bounties worth over 10 million rupees ($1.2 million), surrendered in India’s central state of Chhattisgarh on Thursday, police said, in one of the largest single-day capitulations by the outlawed group in recent years.
The 103 cadres, among them 22 women, gave themselves up in Bijapur district before senior police and paramilitary officials, citing disillusionment with the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and attraction to government development and rehabilitation schemes, Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Yadav said.
Each of the former rebels was given an immediate cash assistance of 50,000 rupees and will be rehabilitated under state policy, authorities said.
Among those who surrendered was Lachhu Punem, alias Santosh, a divisional committee member of the Maoists carrying a bounty of 800,000 rupees. Several others on wanted lists, including platoon commanders with rewards ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 rupees, also laid down arms, police said.
The Maoists, also known as Naxalites, have been waging an armed insurgency in mineral-rich central and eastern India for decades. Once described by the government as the country’s biggest internal security threat, the movement has weakened in recent years as leaders have been killed, arrested, or surrendered.
So far this year, 410 insurgents have surrendered and 421 others have been arrested in Bijapur district alone, police data show.
Authorities said the latest wave of surrenders reflected the impact of initiatives such as Poona Margem – a police-led reintegration programme – and the state government’s Niyad Nellanar (“your good village”) scheme, designed to bring development to remote tribal areas.
“Families of the surrendered cadres also want them to live a normal life and reintegrate into society,” Yadav said, urging other Maoists to abandon violence.
