Nine Maoists surrender before elections in Odisha
Bhubaneswar: Nine members of the banned CPI (Maoist), native of Chhattisgarh, surrendered before the Odisha Police on Wednesday. Two of them, Yogi Madvi and Paus Madvi, are women and considered top leaders.
Police said Yogi (20) joined CPI (Maoist) in 2019, while Paus followed in 2020. Yogi was the personal security guard of Divisional Committee member Sila alias Nagmani, who is an active leader of the 8th Company of Kandhamal-Kalahandi-Boudh-Nayagarh. KKBN) division is functioning in Boudh district. The other seven were working as party members.
ADG (Operations) Dev Dutt Singh said, “Besides the effective rehabilitation policy of the state government, sustained anti-Naxal operations led to the surrender.” Southern Range IG Jai Narayan Pankaj said that due to increased anti-Naxal operations in both Odisha and Chhattisgarh, the militants are probably apprehensive of any movement due to the fear of encounter with security forces. This could be the reason why he chose to surrender before the Odisha government, he said.
“In the last three to four months, at least five camps of BSF and CRPF have been set up in core areas of Kandhamal and Boudh, which were once strongholds of Naxalites. Special operations groups along with BSF and CRPF are also regularly conducting area dominance exercises in Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Boudh and this has stopped the Naxalites from carrying out any activities,” Pankaj said.
Apart from anti-Naxal operations, killings of Red militants in recent months have also demoralized the middle and lower rank cadres. On April 25, two Naxalites were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces in Parhel Reserve forest under Kantamal police limits in Boudh district. Police said the killing of top Maoist cadre Dudu Mundari on February 3 was a major blow to the outlawed organisation. , Dasaru was the head of the KKBN division.
The other Naxalites who surrendered were identified as Bhima Kadti (22), Bhima Banjam (25), Bandi Banjam (30), Arma Raba (30), Malla Madvi (29), Deba Kadti (25) and Ayata Madvi (26). happened in. Boudh SP Raj Prasad said, he is from Muller village of Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
Police said security has been tightened ahead of the elections as Naxalites are using Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Boudh corridors to stay connected with cadres from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
