47 Maoists Surrender Before Telangana Police

Telangana DGP Shivdhar Reddy today announced that a total of 47 underground Maoists had surrendered before the police and rejoined the mainstream society.

Among those who surrendered were members of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), as well as key leaders belonging to the South Bastar Divisional Committee.

The DGP specifically said that prominent leaders including Hemla Ithu (alias Vijja) and Podiyam Lachhu (alias Manoj) were in this list.

He added that among those who surrendered, four belonged to the PLGA Battalion, 28 to the DKSZC, and 15 to the 9th and 30th Platoons.

Upon surrender, the Maoists also handed over a substantial cache of weapons. The DGP said that a total of 32 weapons, along with 515 rounds of ammunition, were surrendered to the police. The cache included various types of weaponry - LMGs, AK-47s, INSAS and SLR rifles, pistols, revolvers and muskets.

He said that with this large-scale surrender, Maoist influence in the State was likely to decline further.

The DGP said that these Maoist cadres came forward to surrender as a result of the rehabilitation policy implemented by the Telangana government and the awareness programs conducted by the police.

He also said that the actions taken by the security forces in Telangana were having an increasingly significant impact on the Maoist movement, and that the South Bastar Division had reached a state of near-complete debilitation.

He added that due to the efficient performance of the Telangana police over the past two years, a total of 818 Maoists had surrendered and 334 weapons had been seized.

The DGP however said that several key Maoist leaders - Laxman Rao (Ganapathi), Pasunuri Narahari (Santhosham), Jadi Rathnabhai (Sujatha) and Vartha Shekhar (Mangu) - hailing from Telangana continued to remain underground, and appealed to them to surrender immediately.