fter several years of quiet, there have been stirrings of Maoist activity in the tribal hills on the Andhra-Odisha border in recent weeks. The banned CPI (Maoist) has been active again, trying to organise people in these hamlets against the Government’s plans to resume mining of bauxite.
But what is particularly worrying to the police is the possibility of a gun-running links developing between the Maoists and the flourishing marijuana smugglers in this district. The recent arrest of two tribesmen who were allegedly trying to sell arms to Maoists in the Pedabayalu region of the Visakhapatnam tribal Agency area has set alarm bells ringing in the anti-naxalite units stationed here..
According to the ASP of Paderu, A. Babujee, the two men had procured a weapon from ganja traders and were trying to pass it on to the Maoists. The weapon seized was a country-made 9 mm pistol. Country-made small arms are stock in trade for the Maoists, but this one was of a sophisticated make. It looked like a regular 9 mm pistol with a butt-loading facility. Police also recovered five 9 mm cartridges from the two men.
According to the ASP, the weapon appears to have been procured by ganja smugglers from weapons traders based in MP, Bihar, Jharkhand or Uttar Pradesh. “There are places in these states where weapons, even sophisticated ones, are manufactured,” he said.
Sources in the police say easily concealable small arms are being procured by CPI (Maoist) to supply them to its action teams. “Action teams operate in groups of two to four cadres, and they need small arms to fire from close range,” said a senior officer of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB).
Logistic support
Deputy excise commissioner M. Satyanarayana says that conditions exist for the formation of a nexus between Maoists, ganja smugglers and arms dealers. However, the central committee of CPI (Maoist) condemns ganja cultivation.
To this, police say that though the Maoists claim to shun ganja cultivation, they dod depend on smugglers for provisioning and logistic support such as supply of rations, batteries, wires and tarpaulin sheets.
There are places in States like MP, Bihar, Jharkhand and UP where even sophisticated weapons are manufactured
A. Babujee
ASP of Paderu
