The new world of surrendered left-wing extremists

Lakhan is immersed successful diagnosing faults successful a motorbike. He hardly finds a infinitesimal to be to the increasing enactment of customers waiting extracurricular his cramped compartment successful Phulbani town, the territory office successful Odisha’s Kandhamal. Locals cognize small astir what Lakhan did oregon wherever helium came from. What they bash cognize is that helium is among the astir sought-after motorcycle mechanics successful this cardinal Odisha town.

Only a fistful of radical astir him, on with the section police, are alert of the beingness helium erstwhile lived. Five years ago, Lakhan was acold much acquainted with firearms than screwdrivers.

Karuna, meanwhile, sits astatine a summons antagonistic successful the municipality wood park, greeting visitors anxious to larn astir the divers works taxon connected display. Few would conjecture that this soft-spoken pistillate erstwhile spent 13 years heavy wrong the forests of Odisha and Chhattisgarh, trekking crossed hills, surviving disconnected the wilderness, and surviving connected chaotic animals and plants erstwhile nutrient was scarce.

What unites Lakhan and Karuna is their determination to wantonness their past relation with the CPI (Maoist), the outlawed radical erstwhile described by erstwhile Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arsenic India’s “greatest interior information threat”.

With Union Home Minister Amit Shah vowing to destruct the remnants of this convulsive question by March 2026, some Lakhan and Karuna basal arsenic reminders of those who person chosen a antithetic path.

While predominant skirmishes successful Chhattisgarh proceed to predominate headlines, a quieter but dependable watercourse of Maoists is choosing to surrender. In November, the Odisha authorities importantly accrued the reward for those consenting to laic down arms and instrumentality to the mainstream.

A cardinal committee, politburo oregon cardinal subject committee subordinate who surrenders tin present person up to ₹1.10 crore. State committee members are eligible for ₹55 lakh — astir 10% higher than what Chhattisgarh offers surrendered cadres.

“There are astir 80 Naxal cadres progressive successful Odisha, and astir 75 of them are from Chhattisgarh. Naturally, they similar surrendering successful their location State. So, we added a 10% top-up to marque Odisha’s bundle much attractive,” says Sanjeeb Panda, who heads anti-Maoist operations successful the State. Odisha astatine 1 constituent clip had 800 progressive cadres.

Terms and conditions

Surrender comes with money, but besides conditions. Every surrendered subordinate indispensable disclose the individuality of their associates, financiers, harbourers, and couriers, and stock details of the organisation’s proviso chain, including sources of arms, ammunition, and funds. They are treated arsenic “assets” erstwhile they surrender to the police. “Surrendered cadres bring a wealthiness of accusation that gives america a tactical advantage. The much informers we get, the faster and much close our operations become,” Panda says.

For those who person near the outlawed organisation, beingness has taken a crook towards stability, adjacent if the roadworthy is uneven.

At a Kandhamal constabulary transit camp, Champa, a divisional committee subordinate (DCM) successful her 30s, is recovering from a slug wounded that damaged her interior organs. “In 2016, constabulary bullets deed me. Our cadre doc removed it, but the wounded ne'er healed. When I came to a infirmary for treatment, a villager informed the police. I was caught. The apprehension was converted to a surrender successful July this year,” Champa recounts.

As a erstwhile DCM, Champa has already provided important quality to information forces. “I americium being taken attraction of. Police person assured maine attraction astatine AIIMS, Bhubaneswar” she says.

Ajay and Manju, successful their 20s, some from Chhattisgarh, echo akin relief. “During our days successful Kandhamal, we became close. One night, we escaped from the camp. But erstwhile we reached Phulbani, we were arrested and past allowed to surrender,” Ajay says. The mates were country committee members (ACM). Manju speaks astir however she erstwhile stopped a radical of information forces from advancing successful the jungle by spraying them with bullets.

Lakhan and Ajay erstwhile served successful the extortion squad of Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, the wide caput of the banned CPI (Maoist), who was killed successful Chhattisgarh connected May 21, 2025. Their lives present basal successful stark opposition to the years spent guarding 1 of the organisation’s astir almighty leaders. “I would similar to instrumentality to my location successful Bijapur territory of Chhattisgarh,” says Lakhan.

Since 2008, arsenic galore arsenic 1,364 ultras person been arrested by information forces successful Odisha; 2009 saw the highest number, erstwhile 221 were arrested. Only 625 Maoists person surrendered during this play successful the State. This December, 22 equipped Maoists laid down their arms earlier the Director General of Police successful Malkangiri district.

The concealed book

The Special Intelligence Wing of the Odisha constabulary person a publication with the names of Maoists. Only erstwhile a sanction is matched to the idiosyncratic surrendering is the wealth paid out.

The interior workings of the Maoist question is opaque, an ecosystem of secrecy wherever the extracurricular satellite does not spot the workings of the organisation: who belongs to which unit, who commands who, however decisions are relayed down the concatenation of command. After immoderate incidental of violence, whether an onslaught connected information forces oregon a retaliatory strike, the assertion of work comes from a part of the Left-Wing Extremists (LWEs).

Over the years, the SIW has softly built and maintained the concealed book, a perpetually updated registry of Maoist cadres crossed ranks. It has go the acceptable reckoner for anti-Maoist operations successful Odisha.

For 2 decades, the Odisha Police has engaged the Maoists successful an extended battle. Many cadres person surrendered; galore person been arrested. Each clip a Maoist is taken into custody, interrogators hole a elaborate Interrogation Report (IR), documenting everything, from the nutrient they ate successful the forests to the routes they travelled and the names of chap cadres. These confessions, erstwhile cross-verified, go earthy information for the book.

Over time, this has helped quality agencies representation the organisational pyramid: from the Central Committee Members (CCMs) astatine the top, followed by State Zonal Committee Members (SZCMs), Divisional Committee Members (DCMs), Area Committee Members (ACMs) and, finally, Party Members (PMs).

Central Committee Member, Ganesh Uike, who was heading the Odisha operation, was killed successful an brushwood connected December 25. Another elder leader, Modem Balakrishna, was killed successful an brushwood successful Chhattisgarh’s Gariabandh territory successful September this year.

Home Minister Shah wrote connected ‘X’, saying, “In a large cognition successful Kandhamal, Odisha, 6 Naxalites, including CC subordinate Ganesh Uike, person been neutralized. With this large breakthrough, Odisha stands astatine the threshold of becoming wholly escaped from Naxalism. We are resolved to destruct Naxalism earlier the March 31, 2026.”

Laptops, hard drives, and handwritten letters seized successful campy raids supply further clues. The letters often database sentry duties oregon proviso responsibilities, revealing names that are meticulously cross-matched with the concealed book. Since 2021, astatine slightest 15 Maoists person surrendered successful Kandhamal alone.

Security forces besides infer the beingness of elder leaders from the quality of recoveries. Camps occupied by Central Committee members typically incorporate beverage pulverization for tea, branded shoes, adust fruits, and medicines for diabetes that are indicators of older, high-ranking leadership.

Asset creation

A fewer years ago, Surjang, an ACM from Chhattisgarh, surrendered. After a fewer months, Amita, primitively from Kandhamal, besides laid down arms. After the formalities, constabulary helped solemnise their wedding. Today, constabulary unit assertion they inactive observe their daughter’s birthday. Surjang concisely worked arsenic a information defender astatine an orphanage connected a monthly wage of ₹15,000 earlier returning to Chhattisgarh.

In 2018, during an encounter, a DCM-level cadre named Badal was killed. His wife, Jyoti, surrendered soon after. She said she wanted to statesman beingness anew, arsenic per the police. Today, she is joined to a location defender and lives peacefully successful Baliguda, “an Odia daughter-in-law,” locals say.

Karuna, ex-cadre and a wood watcher is backmost with her household successful Tikabali, with constabulary facilitating aesculapian enactment for her. “My household has accepted me. I americium not looked astatine with suspicion,” she says.

Ashok, different surrendered Maoist cadre from Chhattisgarh, has been adopted arsenic a lad by a idiosyncratic successful Kandhamal district. He present works arsenic a mason.

“The closeness betwixt 2 cadres is not ever a contributing origin for the determination to surrender. Many cadres person implicit the years go disillusioned arsenic they person achieved thing against what they aspired for,” says Akhileshwar Singh, Deputy Inspector General of Special Intelligence Wing.

Nervous days and nights

Police property releases often represent the modulation of surrendered Maoists arsenic swift and seamless from a violence-ridden beingness to a new, law-abiding one. On the ground, the world is acold much complex. Cadres who laic down arms tin inactive marque a U-turn and gaffe backmost into CPI (Maoist) ranks. They cannot beryllium chained oregon confined. They tin lone beryllium watched, intimately and continuously.

For galore of them, wealth is not an incentive. They person lived austere lives for years, often without wages, surviving connected immoderate the organisation provided. The satellite extracurricular their forests is unfamiliar. Something arsenic elemental arsenic sleeping nether a airy becomes a struggle. Most cadres are utilized to pitch-dark nights and person cultivated a consciousness for navigating done the darkness.

“We perpetually observe however they respond to this caller life. Those who surrender oregon are arrested are assigned guards who enactment with them circular the clock,” said A.C. Sarkar, adjunct commandant of the Special Operation Group.

In the archetypal fewer days oregon months, tiny requests go large indicators. When a erstwhile cadre asks for a mobile phone, a jacket, assistance tracing a relative, oregon expresses a tendency to thrust a motorcycle, information unit consciousness a consciousness of relief. These are signs that the idiosyncratic is opening to thin towards the mainstream.

But the risks remain. If a cadre escapes backmost to the CPI (Maoist), they transportation backmost intelligence, including the layout of constabulary camps. They whitethorn not beryllium harmless determination either. Police retrieve Biswa, a CPI (Maoist) member. After spending 2 to 3 months successful the Rayagada constabulary transit camp, helium could not set to beingness extracurricular the outfit and slipped away. Coincidentally, an speech of occurrence occurred soon after. Suspicious of his disappearance, the enactment suspected helium had shared accusation and executed him.

The elusive apical tier

Central Committee members stay the astir shadowy rung. They seldom travel into the unfastened and are heavy insulated. Once numbering astir 21, their spot has dwindled to 3 oregon four. Police trust connected surrendered cadres to assistance place them done photos recovered from hard drives oregon phones.

CC members question with 3 to 4 layers of protection: an interior cordon, an outer cordon, sentries, and a civilian patrol enactment — those who mingle among villagers to observe information forces. Alerts are passed done walkie-talkies, cracker blasts, oregon chiseled calls. Militia relay messages rapidly, enabling swift escapes.

Below them, SZCMs, DCMs, and ACMs besides person idiosyncratic information officers. In Kandhamal, 3 SZCMs— Nikhil and Indu (both from Jagatsinghpur) and Sukru from Malkangiri — stay progressive crossed Kandhamal, Rayagada, Kalahandi, and Gajapati.

While the CPI (Maoist) claims to combat for a communist order, its newest recruits are often young, rural, and minimally educated, accidental those rehabilitated. Their vulnerability to ideology is mostly shaped by elder cadres’ discourse. Many cognize small astir nationalist events; their superior impulse is rebellion against perceived oregon existent injustices.

Although astir Central Committee leaders hail from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, they present conflict to enlistee successful their location states. New cadres mostly travel from tribal regions of Chhattisgarh, accidental the police. According to Panda, determination has been nary caller recruitment by the CPI (Maoist) from Odisha successful the past 7 years.

Intelligence agencies judge that erstwhile the remaining CC enactment is neutralised, the organisation volition statesman collapsing owed to deficiency of continuity and experience. With enactment thinning, SZCMs whitethorn beryllium rapidly elevated to CCM positions, but they deficiency the battle-hardened acquisition of their predecessors.

Life successful a Maoist camp

Constant question is simply a mode of life. Camps displacement often to evade information forces. Solar panels present proviso powerfulness for torches and phones, though phones, usually without SIM cards, are utilized chiefly to ticker downloaded videos connected communism oregon motivational songs.

The Maoists cognize the risks of carrying integer devices; retrieving information from hard disks is often highly difficult. Their once-vast quality quality network, robust successful the aboriginal 2000s, has weakened considerably. Earlier, accusation connected information question flowed instantly. Today, with 4 battalions stationed successful Kandhamal and cardinal forces dominating erstwhile Maoist strongholds, colony meetings and gatherings person go astir impossible.

“The concern is present favourable for a implicit extremity to left-wing extremism. We entreaty to each cadres to instrumentality to the mainstream. They volition beryllium taken attraction of, not simply arsenic subjects of instrumentality enforcement, but with a consciousness of work to rehabilitate those who person strayed,” said Harish B.C., Superintendent of Police, Kandhamal.

satyasundar.b@thehindu.co.in

Edited by Sunalini Mathew