Fake Maoists at surrender show

Raipur: Chhattisgarh's BJP government has come under fire for allegedly getting scores of tribal civilians to surrender as Maoists.

The Congress on Friday said that 79 rebels including seven women, who surrendered before Chief Minister Raman Singh and Home Minister Ramvichar Netam in Wednesday, were innocent tribal civilians who had been persuaded by the government to surrender as Maoists.

The claims of the Congress were boosted with police refusing to provide crime details of a majority of the surrendered Maoists.

"A few have a criminal background. All the surrendered Maoists were Dalam members—a local affiliate of the banned outfit Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) but we do not have their criminal records," a police official told IANS.

Raman Singh described the surrender function as a historic day and provided Rs 1,000 to all the rebels, who took oath of joining the mainstream.

Congress veteran and former chief minister Ajit Jogi questioned the surrender exercise and criticised the Raman government for "staging a ceremony of fake Maoists".

Jogi said the government had forcibly brought "innocent tribals to Raipur from trouble-hit Bastar areas" to claim that they had been achieving success against the leftist militants.

He said that the BJP government should resign on moral grounds for staging a "ceremony of tribal civilians who were branded Maoists for political gains".

Netam, however, has strongly refuted Jogi's charges.

"Congress should not politicise sensitive issues. The surrendered rebels were definitely not hardcore Maoists but were working as support cadres of CPI-Maoist's larger terror network," the minister said.

Chhattisgarh is the worst of 13 Maoist affected states. About 50,000 tribals of 600 forested villages have migrated to government-run relief camps in Bastar due to Maoist threats since June 2005 when a civil militia movement against the rebels was initiated.

According to police, about 400 people, including 321 civilians, have died in the state in Maoist violence in 2006.