13 Left-wing extremists surrender in Assam, informs police

Guwahati, Nov 18: Thirteen Left-wing extremists, who were accomplices of veteran CPI(Maoist) leader Arun Kumar Bhattacharjee alias 'Kanchan Da' arrested earlier this year, have surrendered in Dibrugarh and Cachar districts of Assam, a top police officer said.

"13 cadres of proscribed CPI-M joined mainstream today - leaving the path of violence behind - at Dibrugarh and Cachar. They are associates of CPI-M leader Aru Kumar Bhattacharjee @ Kanchan da who was arrested earlier this year by @assampolice," Special Director General of Police, GP Singh said in a Tweet on Thursday.

Veteran CPI(Maoist) leader and a member of its central committee, Arun Kumar Bhattacharjee, known by his nom de guerre 'Kanchan Da', was arrested in Cachar district on March 6 this year.

Additional Superintendent of Police of Dibrugarh, Bitul Chetia had said earlier on Thursday that nine persons claiming to be Maoist cadres had approached the government for surrender, and the district police was verifying their connection with the proscribed CPI(Maoist).

While one of them was known to have links with the extremists, there was no information on the other in police records, the ASP said. Two other persons with suspected links with CPI (Maoist) were apprehended in Dibrugarh earlier this month, and one pistol, magazine and ammunition were seized from them, Chetia had said.

Another person with links with 'Kanchan Da' was also arrested in Cachar a couple of weeks ago on the basis of information extracted from the senior Naxal leader during interrogation, a senior police officer had said.

The 72-year-old 'Kanchan Da' was tasked to set up a state-level committee of the CPI(Maoist) in Assam and create a "red corridor" from a neighbouring country to other Maoists-infected states of India like Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh among others, police had said after his arrest.