At least eight surrendered Maoists were killed by their former guerrilla comrades in various parts of Maharashtra in the past few months, official statistics have revealed.
Sources said the killings mostly occurred in Gadchiroli, Gondia and Chandrapur areas in what is being dubbed as a new strategy on the part of the Left-wing extremists to prevent the flow of “inside information” over to the security personnel.
Special Inspector General (anti-Naxalite operations) Pankaj Gupta told DNA, “It is a trend that surrendered Naxalites are getting eliminated by their former colleagues, who remain at war with the government. The need of the hour is to put in place a proper plan to shield surrendered guerillas.”
The killings have also brought to fore the failure of the security forces (they claim they have no special funds to extend security cover to surrendered extremists) to protect surrendered Maoists putting a question mark on the viability the state government’s Naxalite surrender policy which was announced with much fanfare in August 2005.
Also, the government’s recent release of Rs38 lakh, to be paid to the surrendered Naxalites, could ring hollow if former (read surrendered) extremists are not provided adequate security cover. So far, 142 guerrillas have given themselves up in Maharashtra.
Union Home Ministry sources said another Naxalite move, which had lately come to light, is aimed at winning back “lost Naxalite cadre” - a ploy designed to breathe fresh fire into the people’s movement. A section of the top Naxalite commanders are in the process of giving final shape to “win back” plans, it was learnt.
“We cannot deny the possibility of some of the surrendered guerrillas being sucked into the movement afresh. We are on constant vigil to ward off any such eventuality,” Gupta added.
As part of its Vision Document to fight the Naxalites, the security forces have now decided to maintain regular registers on the surrendered elements. “Only by way of keeping registers can we effectively pre-empt the surrendered Maoists from going back to the jungles,” said a senior security official.
Along with the new developments another thorn in the neck of the security forces in the discovery that indigenous Maoists have access to minutes of meetings (which discussed anti-Naxalite strategies at length) held last year being chaired by Union Home Secretary VK Duggal and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Meanwhile, the recently-seized documents, from a hide-out of Communist Party of India (Maoist) activists in Jharkhand, said time is ripe for the guerrillas to scout for newer ways to exploit weaknesses in the security forces and indulge in weapons-snatching bids.
