DANTEWADA: As many as 11 Naxals, one of them carrying a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh on her head, surrendered in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Dantewada district on Wednesday, police said.
The surrender coincided with the start of the `martyrs' week' observed by the Maoists for their slain colleagues, a police official pointed out.
The cadres, who were associated with the `Malangir Area Committee' of the rebels, turned themselves in at Kirandul police station citing disappointment with the "hollow" Maoist ideology, district superintendent of police Abhishek Pallava said.
The surrender of their colleagues under the district police's `Lon Varratu' (return home) campaign encouraged them, the SP added.
Of those who surrendered on Wednesday, Rambati Barse (24) was president of the Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan (KAMS), a Maoist front, and carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh on her head.
Others, including two more women, were associated with the jan-militia, KAMS and Bhumakal committee of the rebels, he said.
The surrendered ultras were given immediate assistance of Rs 10,000 each and will be provided facilities as per the government's surrender and rehabilitation policy, SP Pallava added.
Since the launch of the Lon Varratu initiative in June 2020, 397 naxals have surrendered in the district, he said.