RAIPUR: For the first time in the last decade, the Maoists’ ongoing annual Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC) has seen a dip in violence unleashed by the rebels in their stronghold Bastar. With local support waning and sensing they are on the back foot, the ultras issued a declaration assuring that all former cadres, who laid down their arms, may return to their villages as they will not be harmed. However, the rebels did warn their surrendered comrades against becoming “integral to the working system of the police force”.
Bastar police, however, said it is nothing but a ploy to lure the surrendered cadres back to their villages and target them to boost the rebels’ TCOC count“Those working as police informers should apologize and desist from working as their facilitators,” a statement issued by the rebels said.
The Bastar police has already cautioned all police posts to ensure that the surrendered rebels don’t get swayed the offer of truce by the active operatives, as it is nothing but a devious ploy to turn the tables on the forces. “We are convinced that the statement is nothing by a desperate ploy by the Maoists to regain support,” Dantewada SP Abhishek Pallava said.