BHOPAL: Continued surrenders by armed Naxal cadres in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, driven by ‘surrender or get eliminated’ anti-Naxal operations, resulted in two more hardcore Naxalites laying down arms in the forests of MP’s Balaghat district on Thursday.

Two wanted Naxals carrying a combined reward of ₹43 lakh surrendered at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in the Korka area of Balaghat district.

They were identified as Deepak Uike, a Gondia-Rajnandgaon-Balaghat (GRB) divisional committee member carrying a reward of Rs 29 lakh, and Rohit, who had a Rs 14 lakh bounty.

With their surrender, Madhya Pradesh is now free of all listed CPI (Maoist) cadres from the Maharashtra-MP-Chhattisgarh (MMC) special zone.

“Based on interrogation of the armed Naxal cadres who surrendered recently, after the latest two surrenders, all listed Naxal cadres of the MMC zone have now been eliminated or have surrendered. This is a historic development,” Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav announced on Thursday evening.

Deepak Uike was considered the poster boy of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in Balaghat district, as he hailed from Palagondi village in the same region.

Both Deepak and Rohit were part of the Malajkhand Dalam of the GRB divisional committee, which operated largely in the southern stretches of the MMC Zone. The dalam, led by CPI (Maoist) central committee member and MMC Zone chief Ramder Majji, saw 12 cadres surrender in Chhattisgarh on December 8.