Maoist girl trainee surrenders in Orissa

RAYGADA - A twelve-year-old juvenile girl Maoist trainee surrendered before the police in Orissa’s Rayagada District on Wednesday.

Interacting with mediapersons here, Anup Krishna, Superintendent of Police said the girl Rajani Muda Majhi surrendered a day earlier after she ran off from a Maoist camp and she has highlighted the trend of ultras recruiting young tribal juveniles for their outfits.

Krishna said the Maoists had kidnapped Rajani and were training her in handling of arms and other duties for the past few months until she ran away with the help of her parents and managed to reach her home at Ghataguda.

Maoists have been recruiting tribal children living in the interior and isolated villages and training them in combat skills.

Krishna termed the modus operandi of Maoists roping in juveniles as disturbing.

“She was under the Azad group in Bansdhara district, she is just 12 years old in age. We have been observing a very disturbing trend similar to that in Sri Lanka in the case of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), where young juveniles are being recruited,” said Krishna.

“Children are enticed by showing programmes of dance and music and then enroll them into the outfit. The Maoists are destroying the young generation of the tribals,” he added.

Rajani said she was too scared to refuse going along with them.

“I was playing near the village with other two children, when the Maoists asked us to bring rice for them. We got that for them. Soon after that they left the others and took me along with them to their camp saying they will leave me back to my village in the morning,” said Rajani.

She also mentioned that on her frequent requests to return home, the Maoists told her that if she goes back to the village, the police would eliminate her. By Sarada Lahangir (ANI)