Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said that 210 Maoists, includinga central committee member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), surrendered in Jagdalpur on Friday.

Calling it a “historic day” for the country, the chief minister said in a social media post: “Today, they have laid down the guns from their shoulders and taken the Constitution into their hands.”

Among those who surrendered were four members of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, 21 from the divisional committee and 61 from area committees of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), The Hindu reported.

The surrendered persons handed over 153 weapons, including 19 Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947 rifles, 17 Self-Loading rifles, 23 Indian Small Arms System rifles, an Indian Small Arms System light machine gun, 36 0.3 rifles, four carbines and 11 barrel grenade launchers to security forces, according to the newspaper.

This came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that 258 persons associated with the Maoist movement had surrendered in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra between Wednesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday, 61 Maoists, including key leader Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Bhupathi, laid down arms in Maharashtra.

While surrendering, Bhupathi had urged security forces to suspend operations in Maoist strongholds for a period of one month to allow consultations with other party leaders and those who are in jail.

The Union government has repeatedly...

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