Laraiyatard (Munger), May 11: Twenty-five Maoists, including a self-proclaimed area commander and a woman activist of the CPI (Maoist), today surrendered before senior police and administrative officers here.

Today’s surrender in the Maoist-hit Munger division came after a gap of five years. In 2007, at least 12 rebels had laid down their arms before the police in Jamui in 2007.

Located in one of the most inaccessible parts of Munger district, Laraiyatard is about 7km from the Dharhara block headquarters and 28km from Munger district headquarters.

Led by their “area commander”, Yugeshwar Koda, the Naxalites surrendered before divisional commissioner S.M. Raju, inspector-general of police (Bhagalpur zone) A.K. Ambedkar, deputy inspector-general Anil Kishore Yadav and superintendent of police (Munger) P. Kannan. Among those who surrendered were hardened rebels like Bhim Yadav, Popen Yadav, Surendra Yadav, Ranjit Yadav, Dinesh Yadav, Shivdani Yadav and Maini Devi.

Political observers, however alleged that most of them were “Maoist sympathisers” and were not active members of the outfit. They alleged that the rebels had been falsely implicated in Maoist-related cases by their rivals.

Sources said the rebels decided to give up arms to get benefits as part of the government’s surrender and rehabilitation policy for the Maoists.

However, senior officers in the eastern Bihar police claimed that the cops, after, many years, could motivate such a huge number of rebels to dump their guns.

The preparations for the surrender ceremony began early in the morning with the police inviting a select group of journalists for the programme. But the police had not disclosed the venue. “It was for the safety and security of the reformed rebels. We were informed about the surrender of 50-odd Maoists. But for some reason, 25 of them surrendered,” said Ambedkar, who had played a vital role in motivating the rebels to surrender.

The government would provide Rs 10,000 to the family of each reformed rebel and Rs 3,000 per month as family pension. “If the person is eligible for Indira Awas Yojana units, he/she would get it. Besides a loan of Rs 1 lakh would be provided to each surrendered person for livelihood,” he added.