Nine Maoists, including three women, surrendered before Malkangiri Superintendent of Police Akhileshwar Singh on Monday morning.
Earlier on September 4, four Maoist cadres, including a woman, had surrendered in the district. SP Singh said of the nine Maoists, eight are from the Chitrakonda area and one from the Malkangiri area.
The surrendered Maoists said that they wanted to join the mainstream as their life was always under threat. “I wanted to live with my family as I was distressed with the activities of the Maoists. We were always living under a constant threat. Frequent combing operation undertaken by the police posed a threat to our lives. We wanted to join the mainstream and, hence, surrendered,” said a Maoist.
The nine ultras said they had joined CPI(Maoist) after they were told about police torture on innocent tribals. They, however, wanted to join the mainstream after they found that their leaders were deviating from the Maoist ideology. Singh said all the surrendered Maoists would be suitably rehabilitated as per the Government package.