In a significant blow to the CPI (Maoist), as many as 20 Maoists, including senior leaders, are set to surrender before Telangana Director General of Police Shivadhar Reddy on Saturday, January 3, police sources said.
Those surrendering include prominent Maoist figures Kankanal Rajireddy, Rema, and Badse Sukka, also known as Deva. Deva was the commander of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army’s (PLGA) 8th Battalion, a key armed wing of the Maoist outfit.
According to officials, the group is laying down arms along with 48 mounted light machine guns (LMGs) and ₹20 lakh in cash. The Telangana police described the development as the largest single arms surrender by Maoists in the state in recent years.
The Telangana DGP is scheduled to address a press conference later in the evening to provide details on the surrender and its implications for counter-insurgency operations.
The surrender comes amid intensified anti-Maoist operations in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. At least 14 CPI (Maoist) cadres were killed in two separate encounters with security forces in the early hours of Saturday, officials said.
The exchanges of fire occurred in the forested areas of Bijapur and Sukma districts. Security personnel have launched extensive combing and search operations in the region to recover the bodies of the slain Maoists.
Senior police officers are overseeing the operations, while additional forces have been deployed to support teams on the ground.
Chhattisgarh has witnessed sustained counter-insurgency action over the past year. Official data indicates that 285 Maoists were killed in encounters across the state last year, with 257 of them eliminated in the Bastar division, which includes Bijapur district. Another 27 Maoists were killed in Gariaband district under the Raipur division.
