50 Maoists surrender in Bijapur ahead of PM Modi’s Chhattisgarh visit

Raipur: Fifty Maoists, including 14 with a cumulative bounty of ₹68 lakh, surrendered before police in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Sunday, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state.

The rebels laid down their arms before senior officials of the state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). According to Bijapur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jitendra Kumar Yadav, they cited disillusionment with the Maoist ideology, internal conflicts, and exploitation of tribals by senior cadres as reasons for their surrender.

The government’s ‘Niya Nellanar’ (Your Good Village) initiative, which provides basic amenities in remote areas, also played a key role in their decision, he added.

Among those who surrendered, six had a bounty of ₹8 lakh each, three carried ₹5 lakh rewards, and five had bounties of ₹1 lakh. The surrender was facilitated by the District Reserve Guard (DRG), Bastar Fighters, Special Task Force (STF), CRPF, and its elite CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) unit. The surrendered Naxalites will be rehabilitated as per the government’s policy for reintegration into mainstream society, officials said.

The mass surrender comes just hours before PM Modi’s scheduled visit to Chhattisgarh, where he would lay the foundation stone and inaugurate development projects worth over ₹33,700 crore.

Meanwhile, security forces achieved another major success on Saturday, eliminating 18 Naxals, including 11 women, in encounters in Sukma and Bijapur districts of the Bastar region. The operations are part of the ongoing mission to eradicate Naxalism by March 31, 2026.

With these recent operations, 134 Maoists have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh this year, of which 118 were in the Bastar division. In 2024, a total of 792 Maoists surrendered across the seven districts of Bastar, according to police records.