345 Maoist militias surrender in Odisha in 10 days, state attributes success to ‘attractive’ surrender policy
The rebel sympathisers were presented sports equipment, musical instruments
By A Iswar Rao
Malkangiri, June 12: As many as 345 active Maoist militias have surrendered before the Odisha police in the past 10 days. While 50 militias surrendered June 2, as many as 295 followed the suit on Saturday.
“After surrender of 50 active militias on June 2, another 295 active militias of Jantri gram panchayat in Malkangiri districts have surrendered before the district administration. Those who surrendered expressed their opposition towards the Maoist ideology by burning the dress materials of the rebels. They also gave slogans ‘Maobaidi Murdabad,’ expressing their resentment against them,” the state director general of police Sunil Bansal tweeted.
The Malkangiri district administration distributed job cards and pension documents to the surrendered militias. On their part, the police distributed sports equipment and musical instruments to the surrendering people.
The DGP posted a number of pictures on the micro-blogging site Twitter that showed the militias burning the Maoist dresses and district administration handing over them job cards and pension papers.
In a video clip posted by the DGP, a youth says they now felt liberated from the clutches of the Maoists and have started living decent life with the support of the state administration,
More than 1,500 militias have surrendered before the Malkangiri district administration in the past four years.
The militias are the villagers who sympathise with the cadre Maoists and extend them all kinds of logistic support to the Maoist leaders and cadres. They provide food and shelter to the guerrillas and often carry their arms to different destinations.
A sizable number of cadre Maoists have also surrendered before the district administration in the past few years.
According to the statistics available with state police, as many as 31 Maoists surrendered in the state in 2016. In 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, as many as 26, 27, 13 and 21 rebels surrendered, respectively. Most of the surrenders were reported in the worst-hit Koraput and Malkangiri districts.
The state government claims its “attractive” surrender and rehabilitation policy for the Maoists has encouraged the militias and cadre-Maoists to surrender and thereby contributed to a significant drop in Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in Odisha.
