150 Maoist supporters surrender in Malkangiri

About 150 Maoist supporters, including four members of the ultra outfit and two village committee members, today surrendered before the police in Odisha's worst Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-hit district of Malkangiri here today, the police said.
Irked over the unabated Maoist violence in their localities, the villagers preferred to surrender before the police, Malkangiri SP Mitrabhanu Mohapatra told reporters here.
The people belonging to Gumkaguda and Intaguda villages of Chitragapalli gram panchayat under Kalimela police station came to the district police headquarters here and surrendered, Mohapatra said adding he would examine whether these people could be covered under any rehabilitation scheme.

Living in remote and hilly terrain, the surrendered people said they were sandwiched between the police and the Maoists.
"While Maoists suspect us as police informers, the security personnel hold us responsible for any violence in the area," said Tula Carbami, a ward member of Intaguda village and one of the two village committee members of the CPI (Maoist) in Kalimela area.
The four ultras, who worked for the Maoists for a long time, said they were forced to do the job.
"Otherwise, they would have killed us," they said.
Lauding the people who abandoned the Maoists, SP Mohapatra said he was expecting other villagers to follow the suit adding, the residents of Silakota under Padia block had on August 31 also surrendered before the Police.