Author: Shishir Gupta with Nitin Mahajan in
Raipur
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 3, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/279401.html
Introduction: Seized Naxal laptop suggests
bid to acquire urban warfare capabilities, training in anti-aircraft guns
At a time when Naxalites and their sympathisers
are trying to infiltrate the industrial belts around Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and
cities right up to Jammu, new evidence suggests that they are also trying
to build urban guerrilla warfare capabilities like rigging remote-controlled
explosives devices in cars, even human bombs.
Internal security officials confirmed that
a laptop seized following the arrest by Jharkhand police of Jayant alias Kunal
alias Tudu on August 12 last year contains literature and designs on rigging
explosives for human and car bombs. Prime accused in the murder of CPI-ML
Jharkhand MLA Mahendra Singh, Jayant was picked up by police from Chennai.
The seized laptop, which was examined by security agencies, indicated that
the Naxalites were not only networking with other insurgent groups in India
like the ULFA but were interested in guerrilla warfare by non-state players
in the Middle-East.
Seized material also shows that the extremists
have been training in the use of 12.7 mm anti-aircraft guns and have already
acquired 80 mm mortars and rocket-propelled grenade rifles.
Although the Union Home Ministry continues
to treat the Naxal menace as a largely socio-economic problem, casualty figures
of securitymen have been steadily rising since 2002 and the Naxal influence
is spreading across the country. When the NDA quit office in April 2004, there
was Naxal presence in 125 districts and 12 states. Today the Naxalites are
in 182 districts and 12 states, with "soft bases" in industrial
belts around Delhi and Mumbai. In 2004, 23 CRPF battalions were deployed for
anti-Naxalite operations. Today, 32 battalions have been pressed into service.
The Naxal attempt to move to the cities has
also been noticed in Chhattisgarh, large tracts of which are already in their
grip. Intelligence inputs received by security sources have revealed that
the presence of Naxal cadres has increased in the urban areas of the state,
including Raipur. Chhattisgarh Director General of Police Vishwaranjan too
confirmed to The Indian Express that there has been an increase in Naxalite
presence in the urban areas of Chhattisgarh. Police sources said that disclosures
by several arrested ideologues, including Narayan Sanyal who is in judicial
custody after his arrest from Raipur, pointed to the bid by Naxals to move
towards the cities.
Despite the threat, the Centre-State response
and coordination leaves much to be desired. Naxalites looted 1091 weapons
during the attack on the Nayagarh police armoury in Orissa on February 16
but till date the CRPF has not been told what weapons were taken away by the
extremists. Inducted into counter-operations two days later, the CRPF has
so far recovered 1029 weapons, including 500 .303 rifles, 30 INSAS rifles
and 20 SLRs. But there is no way to confirm whether these are the same weapons
that were looted from Nayagarh.
