At least 62 Maoists gave up arms and surrendered before Bastar IG Vivekanand Sinha and SP Jitendra Shukla in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur today.
According to the official statement by the local police, 51 Maoists have surrendered with their country-made weapons while 11 others have submitted themselves to the law without arms. At leas five of the Maoists who surrendered today had standing warrants against them, the statement said.
The police said that 62 Maoists had been active members of the Tumeradi Jantana Sarkar under the Kutul area committee of Maoists for the past eight to nine years. Tumeradi Jantana Sarkar is classified as violent among the Maoist ranks by the law enforcement.
During the interrogation, the surrendered Naxals revealed that the extremists nexus has weaken over the years due to consistent police search operations and growing pressure due to arrests of senior active Naxal leaders, it said.
The Maoists surrendered due to effective promotion of the Chhattisgarh Government's rehabilitation plan for the ultras, claimed the police, adding that more may be willing to do so as the network has been weaken from within. "More and more want to give up arms and grab a chance to surrender and return to their villages," the police statement said.
The home minister said the success of the government's surrender policy was pushing Naxal cadres to shun the path of violence.
"...I congratulate the State Chief Minister @drramansingh the DGP and the police force for this huge achievement," he tweeted soon after the surrender.
Polling for the 90-seat Chhattisgarh Assembly is scheduled to be held in two phases - on November 12 for 18 seats and on November 20 for 72 constituencies.
Most of the constituencies in the first phase fall in the state's Bastar region.
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