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Eight extremists belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War surrendered before the Andhra Pradesh police in Hyderabad on Tuesday evening.
Five of them were from Karimnagar district and three from Adilabad district.
The Naxals said they were disillusioned with the Marxist-Leninist ideology and the autocratic attitude of the outfit's leaders.
Some of them said they had surrendered on account of ill-health. They said they wanted to lead a normal life and avail the benefits of the rehabilitation scheme announced by the government.
Director-General of Police Pervaram Ramulu said the surrenders were significant, as all those who had given up arms belonged to weaker sections such as the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes.
Except for a guerrilla squad commander who was 30 years old, everyone was in the early 20s, he said.
B Samaiah alias Srinu, special guerrilla squad commander in Guntur district, was involved in many acts of violence, including the blasting of a jeep at Bandlamotu in Guntur in which one sub-inspector and eight constables were killed.
Nara Pochaiah alias Vinod, deputy commander of Koyyur local guerrilla squad, was involved in a landmine blast at Dobbalapadu. One reserve sub-inspector and three constables were killed in the attack. His wife, Bhupalli Laxmi alias Vanitha, had exchanged fire with police on three occasions.
Others who surrendered were T Venkayamma alias Sujatha, Y Murali alias Vasanth, N Chilakaiah alias Chandu, B Anitha alias Ramakka, K Narayana,.
Ramulu said the police welcomed the talks between the government and the PW. He assured that the police would provide safe passage and security to the underground PW leaders who would come for the next round of talks on July 20.
"We will not spare anyone trying to do any harm to the underground PW leaders coming for talks. We will book them under section 120 B of the Indian Penal Code for conspiring to commit offences," he pointed out.
The DGP denied that the police was killing PW cadres in fake encounters. "I won't call them killings. First, they open fire on our men, who only retaliate. In the process they get killed. So the encounters are real."
Ramulu said the police had arrested 21 prominent functionaries of the PW since January this year. He said that due to surrenders, arrests and encounter deaths of its cadres, the PW had become weak in Andhra Pradesh. However, the outfit was trying to strengthen itself in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Orissa.
The DGP said the police had recovered incriminating documents from an encounter site in Warangal recently. One of the documents pertained to the so-called central military commission of the PW, which had issued elaborate guidelines to the Naxals for carrying out their activities. The PW was also making use of information technology and had even deployed a communications specialist, he pointed out.
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