Hours before the arrival of Union Home minister Amit Shah, security forces in Chhattisgarh had a major success as a total of 16 Maoist cadres of the proscribed CPI- Maoist surrendered before the forces on March 23.
As per the information received, 16 members of the Maoist party who were active in different frontal groups of the outlawed CPI-Maoist surrendered under the Poona Narkom campaign being jointly run by the security forces and district administration in insurgency-hit Sukma of Chhattisgarh.
The surrender includes six members of the Jan militia group while three members of the Dandakaranya Adivasi Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan have also made it to the list, including one Kawasi Pale alias Jogi a member of the platoon no 03 of PLGA, the armed wing of the banned CPI-Maoist.
It’s been reported that a reward of Rs 8 lakh had already been announced on Kawasi by the state government; others with a bounty include Neelam, militia commander of Jaimer and Padam Deva, head of the Chetana Natya Mandali Elmagoda RPC, both carry a reward of Rs one lakh each. Another surrendered member Padam Soma was also carrying a bounty of Rs 50000 on his head.
The surrendered members were moved by the continuous development work and establishments of the security camps in the remote areas of the district; all those who surrendered are residents of Sukma, read the press release.
It is to be noted that search operations have been intensified. Security arrangements have been beefed up since the union home minister visited the CRPF headquarters on March 25, where the 84th raising day celebration of the CRPF is set to be held; this is the first time CRPF has been celebrating its raising day in the insurgency-hit state.
Maoist dump unearthed in Swabhiman Anchal
In a separate development, a team from Border Security Force (BSF) recovered a Naxal dump in Maoist -affected Swabhiman Anchal of Malkangiri district in Odisha on March 23.
A team of the Border Security Force (BSF) was out on a search operation where a huge Maoist dump was unearthed near Taimal village under Chitrakot police station limits of Swabhiman Anchal, 2 SBML guns, 28 detonators, 11 hand grenades along with three steel tiffin boxes were recovered by the team, read a press release of BSF.
It is to be noted that the region witnessed a sharp decline in incidents of left-wing extremism following war-level development works and continuous operations of the security forces after the inauguration of the Gurupiya bridge in 2018.
