Three Naxals surrender in Dantewada

Dantewada, Sep 22: Three Naxals, one of them carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head, surrendered before police in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Wednesday, an official said.
The cadres, who turned themselves in at Kirandul police station, cited they were impressed by the police’s rehabilitation drive ‘Lon Varratu’ and disappointed with the “hollow” Maoist ideology, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava said.
Of them, Dhurva Telam (40), who was active as Maoists’ panchayat committee head, was carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head, while two other cadres, identified as Kosa alias Katti Midiami (25) and Kosa Midiami (32), were working as janmilitia members, he said. Dhurva and Kosa were allegedly involved in the murder of a civilian in Hiroli village last year and torching six vehicles and three machines in the iron ore mining area of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in Bailadila hill range 2019, he said. With their surrender, 429 Naxals have so far quit the violence in the district under the ‘Lon Varratu’ (term coined in local Gondi dialect which means return to your home/village) campaign, launched in June last year, he said. Dantewada police have put up posters and banners in the native villages of at least 1,600 Naxals, mostly carrying cash rewards, and appealed to them to return to the mainstream under the drive.