Keonjhar (Odisha), Sep.25 (ANI): Disillusioned by Maoist policies, two rebels surrendered before the police in Keonjhar, Odisha.
Identified as Mochi Munda and Muni Munda, the extremists were encouraged by the rehabilitation policies mooted by the government. Before their surrender, both were wanted by police in connection with several cases of violence.
Anirudh Singh, Superintendent of Police of Keonjhar, said extremists had misguided them at the outset with promises of money, food and shelter.
Over the last couple of months, there has been an increase in the number of Maoists surrendering, not only in eastern, India but also in the central and southern states.
Meanwhile in a separate incident, police have arrested six Maoist rebels in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district.
Anish Gupta, Superintendent of Police of Ramgarh also briefed about the arms and ammunition recovered from their possession.
"They told us that they have got orders from Jharkhand Sangharsh Jan Mukti Morcha for conducting this act so that they could get some money from there," said Gupta.
Also known as Naxals, the rebels have fought for decades in a wide swathe of central and eastern India, including many resource-rich regions, where tensions run high between poor farmers and industrial developers.
The government calls them India's main internal security threat and an obstacle to higher growth and creation of more jobs in Asia's third-largest economy. Hundreds die annually in the conflict, although levels of violence have fallen in recent years.
The Maoists, however, say they are fighting for the rights of millions of landless people.
In the last few years, the rebels have stepped up their efforts against the government as well as the locals, and locals complain that Maoist activities such as killings and abductions have increased considerably in the area.
According to certain reports, Maoists are facing an acute shortage of personnel in several areas of central and eastern India, due to the steps taken by the state and federal security forces to curtail the insurgency.
The guerrilla war, waged mostly from the forests of central and eastern India now poses the biggest internal security challenge, say analysts. (ANI)
