This has caused the rise in cases of mass surrender of Naxals in the last couple of weeks, the police officer said.
Raipur: A ‘Green Zone’ has been created in the jungles of Bastar in Chhattisgarh to give safe passage to the Maoists keen to surrender, a senior police officer disclosed to this newspaper on Monday.
With the ground situation in the red corridor in Bastar changing radically in the wake of neutralization of many top Maoists such as CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju and Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) secretary Madvi Hidma in separate encounters recently, anxiety and confusion marked the rank and file of the Naxal cadres regarding the fate of the Maoist movement.
This has caused the rise in cases of mass surrender of Naxals in the last couple of weeks, the police officer said.
“Maoist leaders are sending messages through their respective channels to the security forces seeking safe passage in the jungles to surrender along with the cadres”, the police officer said, unwilling to be quoted.
“Earlier also we used to get messages from the Maoists willing to surrender for safe passage so that they could escape encounters by the security forces. But the ground situation has now changed. More and more Maoists are now keen to surrender since they have weakened and lost the capacity to fight. The Maoists have started realizing that the surrender is the best option for them at this juncture to get rehabilitated”, the police officer said.
The growing cases of mass surrender of Naxals in recent times are a clear indicator to this, he added.
More than 80 Maoists including senior cadres have surrendered in Bastar in the past ten days.
In another development, the Madhya Pradesh- Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh (MMC) Zone of Maoists is believed to have split into several factions with some of them keen to shun armed struggle and surrender, sources said.
The MMC Zone spokesman Anant who carried a bounty of Rs 25 lakh surrendered along with ten other cadres in Gondia in Maharashtra a couple of days ago.
“However, it is yet to be known if Maoist Central Committee member Ramder, who is in-charge of MMC Zone, is inclined to surrender or continue with the armed struggle”, a senior police officer said.
