As part of a conscious police initiative by the ruling Karnataka Government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, two Naxal leaders of PWG Noor Zulfikar and Srimane Nagaraj surrendered before the Deputy Commissioner and senior police officers in Chikkamagalur on on Monday in the presence of veteran freedom fighter Doreswamy and journalist Gouri lankesh, among others.
After coming out of 10-year in exile in the forest, they first arrived at Inspection Bungalow and walked to the Deputy Commissioner’s office to complete the legal formalities for surrender. Doreswamy garlanded them and welcomed them to the mainstream.
Nagaraj and Zulfikar, who had identified themselves as Naxalites fighting against the Government for the social cause, speaking to the media, said that they have realised that the fight should be in democratic way and could not be achieved fighting individually or in a group without public support.
The duo were supposed to surrender on December 2 in Bengaluru but it was postponed due to technical reason. Nagaraj said, “we were leaders of Communist Party of India (Maoist) and had participated in many Naxal fights against the Government for more than five years.
“After realising that we cannot achieve our aim, we decided and come out. But we had to remain in exile for more than 10 years. “Now we have surrendered on our own and not due to pressure from any corner or for the package announced by the State Government.
“We continue to fight, of course in a democratic way, to get justice for all,” he added. “It is a happy day. The decision to surrender was taken on our own and not due to ill health or pressure from anybody. We had been fighting against injustice to poor and downtrodden even before the Naxal activities began,” said Zulfikar. “We thank the efforts made by veteran freedom fighter Doreswamy and many of our well-wishers who wanted us to come to mainstream,” added Zulfikar.