Author: IANS
Publication: MSN.co.in
Date: January 10, 2005
URL: http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandorav3/output/News/8f7a356b-9c34-4ea6-bd05-e1a2a55fd885.aspx
Two Maoist leaders of Chhattisgarh
have claimed that they received arms from foreign militant groups, mainly
those in Pakistan.
The "admission" by the Communist
Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) leaders comes in the wake of Chhattisgarh
Home Minister Brij Mohan Agarwal's charge Sunday that Maoists used Pakistani
and Britain-made bullets for killing three state police personnel in Sarguja
district on Saturday.
Maoist commandoes Kosa and Aaytu
told reporters Sunday in a hideout in the state's southern Dantewada forests,
about 420 km from state capital Raipur, that they exchange notes with Pakistani
militants on methods of war and accept modern weapons from Pakistan.
Kosa said: "The way we made a base
in Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and have been progressing
in Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal,
we will be able to capture 30-35 percent of India by 2010."
The Maoist stronghold in these areas
was due to local support, he said at the press meet organised by Maoist
leaders ahead of the three-phased assembly polls in Chhattisgarh Jan 14.
Aaytu said: "The police or the army
cannot compete with us as we take care of the locals' daily problems and
are equipped with modern weapons."
The CPI-Maoist has called for a
poll boycott in Chhattisgarh.
The police have little jurisdiction
over some areas in villages of the state's Bastar region, including Kanker
and Dantewada districts.
