16 Naxals surrender before police

Dantewada, Dec 04 (PTI): At least 16 Naxals surrendered before the police in insurgency-hit Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Saturday, police said. The cadres turned themselves in before police officials in Dantewada, located around 400 km from the state capital Raipur, under the police’s rehabilitation drive ‘Lon Varratu’, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava said.
Of the 16 surrendered rebels, militia member Joga Kunjam (26) was allegedly involved in several Naxal incidents, including an attack on security personnel in the district, the official said.
The ultras will be rehabilitated as per the state government’s policy, he added.
As many as 475 Naxals, including 119 who carried rewards on their heads, have quit the violence in the district under the Lon Varratu (term in local Gondi dialect for return to your home/village) campaign launched by the police in June last year, the official said.
Under the initiative, the Dantewada police have put up posters and banners in the native villages of at least 1,600 Naxals, mostly carrying cash rewards on their heads, and appealed to them to return to the mainstream.