Author: Vivek Deshpande
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 21, 2008
Angered by mass surrenders by their cadres
and supporters in Gadchiroli, Maoists have continued their killing spree,
with one more surrendered Naxalite being shot dead on Wednesday night in the
area of Jaravandi police station.
This takes the death tally in Naxal reprisal
killing since Monday to three. Naxalites had killed two surrendered Naxalites
from Kondawahi village, also under the Jaravandi police station on Monday.
Incidentally, the police station was featured
by The Indian Express as one that wooed back 54 Naxals and their supporters
from 11 villages where the CPI (Maoist) had initiated the process of setting
up a Janatana Sarkar (People government).
A kilometer away from police station is Kandli
village where victim Raju Netam, ofne of the prime mover behind the mass surrender
on January 12, belonged.
"On Wednesday morning, he left Kandli
along with his brother-in-law (wife's brother) Shivram Usendi on motorcycle
for Kasansur village. On Thursday morning, people from sarkheda village, six
km from Jaravandi found his body," Gadchiroli superintendent of police
Rajesh Pradhan told The Indian Express.
"A chit was found near his body which
said he had encouraged the people to surrendere," Pradhan added. The
police are also looking for Usendi, Netam's relative, with whom he had left
the village. "We had asked Netam not to venture out since there was security
threat," the SP further said.
Asked what care was the police taking to protect
the surrendered people, Pradhan said: "We have beefed up security around
the village from where surrenders have come.
On April 10, 43 Naxalites from six villages
in Tadgaon are too had surrendered, 31 of them with weapons. Sudden spurt
in surrenders and death of many of their cadres in encounters have given a
huge setback to the Maoist in the district.
The Indian Express has reported that many
of cadres say they are disillusioned with CPI (Maoist) "failure"
to bring people's government and hence had surrenders.
"Normally, Naxals are not known to have
killed surrendered cadres since that could send a wrong signal to prospective
entrants, but it seems that they are now desperate and are killing the same
people who have helped them immensely in the past," Pradhan said.