A five-foot-tall girl puts her INSAS rifle down. And history is made

It was the first Naxalite surrender in Madhya Pradesh in 33 years, and also the first under the state’s new Rehabilitation and Relief Policy adopted 26 months earlier.

Standing in that glare of the local media, Sunita placed the rifle on the table before Superintendent of Police Aditya Mishra.

Mishra, a veteran of countless operations in the sole left-wing extremism-affected district in MP, leaned forward and asked, “Do you want to say anything?”

Sunita looked up at him, a brief smile flickering across her face. She did not comment. Later, when her family visited her in Balaghat, Sunita broke down on seeing her father and embraced him.

Sunita was born in Gomweta village in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, under Bhairamgarh tehsil. Her father, Bisru Oyam, said, “Three years ago, when she was barely 20, they came for her.”

“Then they wanted her younger sister, too. I refused. I told them no. They wouldn’t let me see my elder daughter, so I would not give them my younger one,” he said.

For three years, there was no contact. According to Balaghat police, “she was absorbed into the machinery of insurgency”. Said a senior police officer, “She became a security guard for Ramder, a Central Committee member of the Maoist organisation and one of the movement’s senior commanders operating across the MMC Zone (Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh). By the time she reached the Malajkhand-Darrekasa dalam as an Area Committee member, bounties totalling Rs 14 lakh had been placed on her head across three states.”

On October 31, as dawn was breaking over the Balaghat forests, Sunita made her move. Silently, she gathered her rifle, her uniform, her kit bag and gave her group the slip, police said.

By November 1, she reached the Chauria HAWK Force camp in the Lanji police station area. She walked up to Assistant Jawan Rupendra Dhurve and, in a moment that would mark history, expressed her wish to surrender. She surrendered her INSAS rifle with three magazines, 30 live rounds, and a UBGL shell.

Balaghat IG Sanjay Kumar said, “We confiscated her weapons. Nobody has anything to fear. The way Sunita surrendered, I appeal to the others to surrender. You may surrender anywhere, in front of a public representative or other officials. Everyone’s security will be taken into account.”

SP Mishra said, “Sunita’s parents said that the Naxals came for their daughters. They threatened to take away his younger daughter if they did not hand over Sunita. They forcibly took her away. This exposes the Naxal propaganda – that their cadres joined for the fight over tribal rights to forest, land and water.”

Government officials said Sunita would get at least Rs 20 lakh as part of the rehabilitation, Rs 1.5 lakh for housing, Rs 50,000 for marriage assistance if needed and another Rs 1.5 lakh if she wants to study.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav cast the surrender in broader terms. “In the past ten months, Naxalites carrying rewards worth approximately Rs 1.5 crore have been neutralised. The police outreach program is also yielding positive results.”