Six with Rs 11L bounty among 22 Naxalites give up arms in C’garh

Twenty-two Naxalites, including six carrying a cumulative bounty of Rs 11 lakh, surrendered in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Sunday, a police official said.

Of these, Ayatu Punem, Pandu Kunjam, Kosi Tamo, Sona Kunjam and Lingesh Padam carried rewards of Rs 2 lakh each on their heads, while the amount was Rs 1 lakh for Tibruram Madvi, he said.

“Punem was active as Platoon Number 1 member under the Andhra-Odisha-Border (AOB) division of the outlawed Maoists outfit. Pandu and Tamo were Platoon Number 9 and 10 party members, respectively. Sona was a Platoon party member under the Telangana State Committee of the Naxal organisation,” he said.

“Madvi was Jantana Sarkar head while Lakhma Kadti was Dandakaranya Adivasi Kisan Majdoor Sangathan (DAKMS) president. The others were lower rung members,” he added.

This year, 107 Maoists have laid down arms, 82 ultras have been gunned down and 143 Naxalites have been apprehended in Bijapur, the official said. “They decried the inhuman and hollow Maoist ideology and hailed the state government’s Naxalism elimination policy and the police’s rehabilitation drive,” he said.

2 injured in IED blast

Two security personnel of the Special Task Force (STF), a unit of the state police, sustained injuries as Maoists triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) to blow up a vehicle, in which they were travelling, in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Sunday. They were injured due to shockwaves after the explosion, the police said.