Two top militants of the outlawed People's Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur, who allegedly helped Maoists in training and by providing them arms, were arrested in the national capital, police said.

"We have arrested two high-ranking militants of the banned organisation. They have helped Maoists in training and providing them arms," a senior police official said.

The arrested have been identified as Dileep, a self-styled captain of PLA, and Arun, who is his deputy, the official said.

They were arrested from Lodhi Colony on October 2 The sources said they came to Delhi on September 28 to meet their associates.

With this, Delhi Police has arrested 13 Maoists from the capital in the past three years. According to the official, Dileep was responsible for external relations of the outfit.

The PLA was formed in 1978 comprising of ethnic groups such as Nagas, Kukis and Meiteis with the objective of liberating Manipur. PLA militants are equipped with sophisticated arms and involved in extortion and killings.

In January this year, Delhi Police had arrested a 28-year-old self-styled Lieutanant -- Oinam Ibomcha Singh -- of the banned outfit. Singh had joined PLA in 1999-2000 and underwent training in handling of arms and ammunition in Myanmar in the camps of Maoists. His areas of operation were Delhi-Guwahati-Dimapur, police had then said.

'PLA wanted to form an alliance of Maoists and JK terrorists' New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) Outlawed People's Liberation Army (PLA) intends to form a 'Strong United Front' against Indian government along with Maoists and JK-based terror outfits, the Delhi Police on Friday claimed after arresting two 'high-ranking' militants of the Manipur-based organisation.

The arrests, police claimed, helped in exposing the nexus between the PLA, which aims to liberate Manipur through armed struggle, and Maoists and their intention to form a 'strategic united front' against their 'common enemy - the Indian government'.

The PLA had also provided logistics, training, weapons and communication system to the CPI (Maoist) and had twice trained their cadre in the jungles of Jharkhand and Orissa in 2009 and 2010 besides planning to conduct two more training camps for the Maoists next year, it said.

"We had arrested N Dilip Singh (51) and Arun Kumar Singh Salam (36) from a hotel in central Delhi's Paharganj on October one. Following their arrest, Manipur Police have arrested three more persons in Imphal," P N Aggarwal, Special Commissioner (Special Cell), told reporters here. Singh, a self-styled captain, is the head of PLA's external affairs while Salam is his deputy.

They came to Delhi as both had been instructed by their superiors to discuss the modalities regarding providing logistics, training, weapons and communication training to Maoists.

Their interrogation and seizure of a laptop and documents from them have shown, he claimed, that the PLA and Maoists had agreed on a joint declaration "intending to form a 'Strategic United Front' to extend full support to each other in their struggle to overthrow the Indian government."

"After the formation of such a front, their intention was to form a 'Strong United Front' which would include the CPI (Maoist), militant organisations of North-East and terror outfits in Kashmir, for it would be effective in challenging the Indian government," he said.