Over a dozen states, about 7,000 dead in 10 years and the government has no clue how LWE organizations are funded or get weapons.
By Kashif-ul Huda, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: “I have been saying for the last three years that Naxalism remains the biggest internal security challenge facing our country,” Dr Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister had said it in 2010. Five years later, the Union Home Ministry is not sure if the left-wing extremism that spans about 14 states has any international source/s of funding.
The South Asia Terrorism Portal, a website that tracks all terror related violence in South Asia, attributes 6,669 killings to Left Wing Extremism in India. Compare this to 829 killings attributed to ‘Islamist Extremism’ outside J&K, NE & Punjab. These numbers are drawn from 2005 to February 22, 2015, a period of 10 years.
(Courtesy: intoday.in)
It is puzzling that an ideology that is being so effective in killing people and spans such a huge geographical spread can survive without some sort of international support. But this is what exactly the Centre seemed to suggest on Tuesday.
National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s premier terror investigation agency has a Terror Funding and Fake Currency Cell (TFFC). The Cell maintains data base of terror financing and cases of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN). It also conducts part investigation into terror financing aspects of regular cases investigated by the NIA. Government of India asked it to conduct investigation into some bank accounts suspected to be linked with Naxalite groups. “The inquiries/investigation conducted by the Cell till now did not reveal linkages of suspected accounts with the known naxalite groups,” this was how Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, Minster of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs told the Lok Sabha.
Replying to another question in the Lok Sabha, Chaudhary said: “There is no evidence / input available to suggest that any international conspiracy is being hatched in any Left Wing Extremist (LWE) infested areas in the country or any external assistance being provided to Left Wing Extremists in terms of financial aid and weapons.”
Then what about the foreign weapons recovered by Naxalites? Chaudhary tries hard to explain: “However, the recovery of arms and ammunitions of foreign origin from the LWE cadres in different encounters and operations is an indication of the fact that they are procuring weapons from different sources.”
Not sure what the Minister meant by “different sources”? And what is it that the government is doing to find out about those sources?
One is almost tempted to ask – if there is no foreign support, why is the government not able to control the domestic source/s of funding and support to the country’s “biggest internal security challenge”?
But the Honourable Minister has left his government a wiggle room – in his reply he added, “The possibility of some front organizations of the CPI (Maoist) clandestinely getting foreign funds cannot be ruled out.”
There you have it! As many as 14 states, close to 7,000 dead in 10 years and the government has no clue how these Naxal organizations are funded or get their weapons.
Related:
Maoists’ activities place India 6th on Global Terrorism Index