New Delhi: Forty-seven cadres of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), led by a senior member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), surrendered before Telangana Police in Hyderabad Saturday, handing over 32 weapons that included a light machine gun (LMG).
Director General of Police B Shivadhar Reddy said the most significant among those who laid down arms was Hemla Iythu, alias Vijja, a DKSZC member who headed the South Bastar Divisional Committee. The committee was once considered one of the most critical organisational units of the banned outfit in the Dandakaranya Region.
The rest of the group—all from Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region—comprised three divisional committee members, 24 area committee members and 19 party members. Among them were four cadres of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), the outfit’s armed wing.
The surrender follows an earlier one this month, when 42 cadres from PLGA and the Telangana State Committee handed over 36 firearms, prompting the police to declare the state free of Left Wing Extremism (LWE).
DGP Reddy said Saturday’s developments had pushed the South Bastar divisional committee to the brink of collapse.
All 47 cadres have been given interim compensation of Rs 25,000 each. The remaining rehabilitation amount will be disbursed after documentation and opening of their bank accounts, a Telangana Police spokesperson said.
The state government is also preparing health cards for surrendered Maoists, covering those who gave up arms from 2024 onwards irrespective of state of origin. The DGP said the process was underway and cards will be issued shortly.
Bastar Inspector General of Police Sundar Raj Pattlingam said the latest round of surrenders makes the end of Maoist insurgency almost a certainty.
“The message is clear. The era of extremism is coming to an end, and the future belongs to peace, development and the aspirations of local communities,” he said in a statement.
“Continuous security operations across Bastar and other Left Wing Extremism–affected regions, along with expanded administrative outreach and the rising aspirations of local communities, have created an environment in which the ideology of extremism is steadily declining. The surrender of such a large number of cadres, along with weapons, reflects this changing ground reality,” he said. Pattlingam asserted that nearly all cadres of South Bastar DVC have either surrendered or neutralised.
With 260 surrenders so far this year, including two Central Committee members in Telangana, and over 800 overall since 2024, the armed CPI (Maoist) faction is now almost defunct, senior police officers said.
Saturday’s development comes nearly a month after the central government marked the 31 March-deadline to eradicate LWE from the country.
The government says Maoist insurgency is nearly over.
Only one of the central committee members now remains beyond the security forces’ reach: Misir Besra. The top decision-making body of the outfit, the central committee had around 20 members early last year.
Besra, police sources told ThePrint, has been camping in Saranda forests straddling Jharkhand and Odisha. He is believed to be protected by a perimeter of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid down by his cadres as security forces attempt to close in. Sources said he is accompanied by two to three dozen cadres, as well as another senior leader, Pasanuri Narahari alias Vishwanath.
DGP Reddy Saturday made fresh appeals to the four remaining Maoist leaders from Telangana, among them Muppala Laxman Rao, alias Ganapathi, who has been inactive and out of communication with the insurgency network for years.
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