Indian intelligence agencies now have concrete evidence to prove that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has established direct contact with Naxal outfits in India. The sole purpose of this strategic move by the ISI is to use the formidable Naxal network to step up violence in the hinterland.
A recent classified intelligence report accessed by this newspaper states that ‘the ISI in particular wants Naxals to cause largescale damage to infrastructure projects and industrial units operating in the interior parts of the country where ISI’s own terror network is non-existent’.
Incidentally, Union home minister P. Chidambaram had also expressed concern over the growing nexus between the ISI andNaxals a few days ago.
The report reveals that the ISI is using its Bangladesh-based operatives to establish contact with the top leadership of the CPI (Maoist). The task has been assigned to a key ISI operative, Mohammed Aslam, who normally operates from Dhaka and Chittagong. Top Ulfa commander Paresh Barua, the report states, has played a key role in bringing the ISI and the Naxals in ‘direct contact’. Ulfa, in fact, wields a lot of clout among the Naxal leadership since it has been helping them with supply of weapons through the terror outfit Kamptapur Liberation Organisation.
The Naxals categorically told the ISI that they did not need any financial support but required more sophisticated arms and ammunition, particularly RDX, to make IEDs. Naxal outfits are so far not known to use RDX so the move is being seen as a tactical shift in their fight against paramilitary forces.
“There is no denying that Naxals are cash rich as their collections from various means, like extortion and protection money, run into hundreds of crores. What they need are weapons for which they can even afford to pay,” a top intelligence official remarked.