Sonu’s surrender in Maharashtra has ripples in Chhattisgarh, 50 Maoists from Abujhmad lay down arms

The 50 Maoists, including two members of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) — the outfit’s topmost state-level body — surrendered before the Border Security Force (BSF). The Dandakaranya region includes Bastar’s seven districts and border areas of Maharashtra, Telangana, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

The two DKSZC members, Rajman Mandavi and Raju Salam, surrendered along with five Divisional Committee Members (DVCMs), 21 Area Committee Members (ACMs) and 22 party members. Among the 50, 32 are women and 18 are men.

A total of 39 weapons were surrendered, including seven AK-47 rifles, two self-loading rifles (SLRs), four INSAS rifles, one light machine gun (LMG), 12 .303 rifles, one barrel grenade launcher (BGL) and five 12-bore rifles.

Abujhmad, also known as Maad, is an unsurveyed forested region larger than the state of Goa, spread over about 4,000 sq km across Narayanpur, Kanker, Bijapur, Dantewada in Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. Since the 1980s, Maoists — including Sonu — had made Maad their stronghold.

The latest surrender marks a major success for security forces, who launched the ‘Maad Bachao Abhiyan’ (Save Maad Campaign) in 2024 to root out Naxalism from the region. Since last year, over 100 Maoists have been killed in and around Maad.

In May this year, top leader Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basava Raju, 70, the party’s general secretary, was gunned down in Abujhmad, followed by Central Committee Members Katta Ramachandra Reddy, 63, and Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy, 67, in September.