Doubts persist on links between Indian Naxalites and LTTE By M Rama Rao

As the Naxalites have carved out a red corridor from India- Nepal border to Tamil Nadu, periodically questions are raised as to whether the Indian Naxalites have links with the Nepali Maoists and the Sri Lanka’s Lineration Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE.) Also, questions about from where the Naxalites were getting their sophisticated weapons too are raised frequently.

I had put the question to Indian Federal Interior Secretary V K Duggal. He said there are no links between Naxalites and the LTTE. The weapons are those mostly snatched from the police. This view is not shared by some experts. One of them, Brigadier Bansi Kumar Ponwar, opines that military hardwares for Naxalites are being provided by LTTE.

"They have these outside alliances. We have got video clippings of the LTTE giving them training in IED methodology. And this is being used extensively all across the border. In fact they have put IED's where ever there are approach roads to their camps," the Brigadier was quoted as saying by TV Channel, CNN-IBN.

Brigadier Bansi Kumar Ponwar is heading a Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare School in Chatisgarh state where over 100 civilians were killed in the past three months – the highest death toll in Naxalite violence even as the red terror graph has dropped at the national level.
,br> Unlike in other states, here in Chatisgarh, a voluntary people movement has taken shape to challenge the Naxal's vandalism and hackneyed revolutionary concepts. The participants in the campaign are illiterate tribals who feel their habitat and lives threatened by the arrival of Naxalites, who are mostly unemployed youth from the plains.

The tribal youth who have come together under the banner - Salwa Dalum (peaceful campaign) – are unarmed. This fact alone explains the heavy death toll in the naxal belt, officials said.
,br> A high level Coordination Committee headed by the Interior Secretary V K Duggal has decided to first let the youth campaign to consolidate in areas where security forces are in strength and then only move forward. Simultaneously, it was decided to get training for the local police in mine sweeping and related operations .

The Ponwar School is police commandos because they have to fight "a guerilla like a guerilla in his den. Not sitting in one police station and waiting for him to attack. You will be destroyed if you do that".

State Director General of Police OP Rathore has sought appointment of five thousand tribal youth as special police officers after training to act as some sort of auxiliary force.

The Interior Secretary Duggal said this request has been granted.

(http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=17499)