44 naxals surrender in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh

Raipur: As many as 44 naxals including nine women cadres surrendered before police in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-affected Sukma district on Saturday, a senior official said.

The rebels, mostly lower-rung cadres who were active in Chintalnar, Kistaram and Bheji areas of the district, turned themselves in at the newly-set up police camp in Karigundam village, said Sukma Superintendent of Police Sunil Sharma.

One of them, Madkam Dula, a member of Maoist platoon no. 4, was carrying a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head.

Others were members of naxals’ militia or the Chetna Natya Mandli, a cultural wing of Maoists, Sharma told PTI.

A large number of local villagers accompanied the cadres when they arrived at the police camp, located more than 400 km from capital Raipur, he said.

The surrendered cadres said they were disappointed with the ”hollow” Maoist ideology and ”impressed” by the district police’s rehabilitation drive for naxals, called ‘Puna Narkom’, he said.

Puna Narkom, a Gondi word, means a new dawn.