About 30 Maoists, who have surrendered before the Odisha police under the Red rebels’ rehabilitation policy of the State Government, watched the Men’s Hockey World Cup (HWC) matches at the Kalinga Stadium here on Thursday.
Several of these surrendered rebels once had a cash bounty of Rs 4 lakh to Rs 2 lakh on their heads, held the Tricolour in their hands instead of guns.
For the surrendered Maoist cadres from Koraput and Malkangiri districts, special arrangements were made by the district administrations for their visit to Bhubaneswar to witness the mega sporting event.Not only the Kalinga Stadium, the erstwhile Maoists also visited Nandankanan, Puri and the Sun Temple at Konark on the day.
They were brought to the State capital under the supervision of Malkangiri district SP Jagmohan Meena after they expressed their wish to watch the HWC matches.
“We brought 10 former Red rebels from Koraput and 20 from Malkangiri to Bhubaneswar and they also visited other tourist destinations across the State,” said Meena.