Nepal Maoists’ guns may arm Indian Naxals

 

MUMBAI: Indian security forces fear that a sizeable cache of arms belonging to the surrendering Maoist rebels in Nepal could end up in the hands of indigenous Naxalite groups like the People’s War Group.

 

Sources in the security establishment told DNA that some of the weapons could also be diverted to a section of Mumbai’s underworld, which has links with the Nepalese rebels.

 

The sources said the National Information Centre on Left-wing Extremists, which functions under the Union home ministry, has alerted the government to the threat and steps are being taken to defuse it.

 

“We’re alive to the threat and will take all measures to prevent weapons being re-routed to Indian Naxalite groups,” Inspector General of Police (anti-Naxalite operations) Pankaj Gupta said.

 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had recently referred to the Naxalite problem as the country’s most pressing internal security threat. The Nepal Maoists had established formal links with the PW in June 2001 by forming the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia. The Vision Document prepared by the Maharashtra government to combat the leftist rebels had also pointed to the existence of strong ties between ultra-Left groups in India with the LTTE in Sri Lanka and the Maoists in Nepal.

 

Security officers fear that the sophisticated arms of the Maoists will rejuvenate leftist extremist groups that are active in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, and parts of West Bengal. The Nepalese rebels are said to be possess Kalashnikov assault rifles, imported pistols, mortars, and sophisticated rocket launchers.