BHOPAL: Ten days and 33 surrenders have shrunk the number of armed Naxal cadres to single digits, for the first time in more than three decades in the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) Special Zone.

The CPI (Maoist) MMC Zone comprises bordering districts of the three neighbouring states – MP, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh – including Balaghat district and parts of Mandla district (MP), Rajnandgaon, KCG, MMA and Kabirdham districts of Chhattisgarh, and Gondia district of Maharashtra.

Around 40-45 armed Naxal cadres were active in two major parts of the MMC Zone. Three Dalams, Khatiya Mocha, Bhoramdev and Borla, formed the Kanha-Bhoramdev Division in the northern MMC Zone, covering Balaghat and Mandla districts of MP and Kabirdham district of Chhattisgarh.

At least two Dalams, Malajkhand (including the defunct Tanda Dalam cadres) and Darre Khasa, formed the Gondia-Rajnandgaon-Balaghat (GRB) division in the southern MMC Zone, where cadres armed with AK-47s, INSAS rifles and Under Barrel Grenade Launchers (UBGLs) remained active.

A series of bulk surrenders began on November 28, when 11 Darre Khasa Dalam cadres, led by MMC Special Zonal Committee spokesperson Vikas Nagpur alias Anant, surrendered in Gondia (Maharashtra).

Nagpure had recently appealed for an end to armed struggle and sought time from the CMs of the three BJP-ruled states to surrender, amid intense pressure from joint anti-Naxal operations.

Just nine days earlier, on November 19, cadres of the same Darre Khasa Dalam had killed Ashish Sharma, a young inspector of MP Police’s elite Hawk Force, in an encounter at the tri-state border.

Before surrendering with 10 cadres, Nagpure had left behind four armed cadres, likely to persuade other Dalam members. who later surrendered in Chhattisgarh on Monday.