Bhubaneswar, Feb 4: In a major breakthrough for anti-Maoist operations, an underground CPI (Maoist) cadre of Area Committee Member (ACM) rank, Sukhram Markam, surrendered before the Malkangiri police on Wednesday, giving up violence and joining the democratic mainstream. His surrender is being seen as a significant blow to Maoist activities in the region.

Markam, also known by the aliases Suresh and Yogesh, was the commander of the Kangerghati Area Committee. He hails from Govindpal village under Puspal police station in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh and was active across the Odisha–Chhattisgarh border.

At the time of surrender, he handed over a large cache of arms and explosives, including one SLR rifle with 12 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, a magazine, two IEDs weighing about 2 kg, codex wire, crackers, electric wire, a haversack, whistle code, Maoist uniform, red cloth, tarpaulin, and a torchlight with batteries. Speaking before police officials, Markam formally severed ties with extremist activities and expressed faith in democratic values.

Police said Markam was involved in several violent incidents in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, and termed his surrender a major success in weakening the Maoist network in Malkangiri, moving the district closer to becoming Naxal-free.

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