GUNNER
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2010
- Messages
- 1,489
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
- Location
India Offers Surrender Package For Maoists
KOLKATA, India, July 29, 2010 (AFP) - One of India's states worst-hit by Maoist violence has offered more than 2,000 dollars to each rebel who surrenders their weapons and gives up the fight, police said Thursday.
The state government in West Bengal has promised a bank account with a deposit of 100,000 rupees (2,140 dollars), as well as job training and employment opportunities.
"The state promises to take care of them," senior police officer Surajit Kur Purkayastha told AFP on Thursday. "We will continue our fight but there are many Maoists who are keen to surrender. We are giving them a chance to change." The Maoists are fighting government rule in a large swathe of eastern and central India with support from landless tribal groups and poor farmers who have been left behind by economic development.
Their insurgency, which first erupted in 1967 in a village in West Bengal, has spread to 20 of India's 29 states and been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country's largest internal security threat.
Similar rehabilitation packages have been introduced in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, both of which face a significant Maoist threat.
The government launched a major offensive last year to tackle the left-wing rebels, but top officials have warned that it could take between five and seven years to fully quell the insurgency.
In retaliation, the rebels have killed over 100 police officers in the last four months and in May the insurgents were blamed for derailing a Kolkata to Mumbai passenger train, killing nearly 150.
KOLKATA, India, July 29, 2010 (AFP) - One of India's states worst-hit by Maoist violence has offered more than 2,000 dollars to each rebel who surrenders their weapons and gives up the fight, police said Thursday.
The state government in West Bengal has promised a bank account with a deposit of 100,000 rupees (2,140 dollars), as well as job training and employment opportunities.
"The state promises to take care of them," senior police officer Surajit Kur Purkayastha told AFP on Thursday. "We will continue our fight but there are many Maoists who are keen to surrender. We are giving them a chance to change." The Maoists are fighting government rule in a large swathe of eastern and central India with support from landless tribal groups and poor farmers who have been left behind by economic development.
Their insurgency, which first erupted in 1967 in a village in West Bengal, has spread to 20 of India's 29 states and been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country's largest internal security threat.
Similar rehabilitation packages have been introduced in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, both of which face a significant Maoist threat.
The government launched a major offensive last year to tackle the left-wing rebels, but top officials have warned that it could take between five and seven years to fully quell the insurgency.
In retaliation, the rebels have killed over 100 police officers in the last four months and in May the insurgents were blamed for derailing a Kolkata to Mumbai passenger train, killing nearly 150.