Naxalite Ties to External Groups

Naxalite ties to external groups

(I have more on Naxalite weapons procurement for the tactical update)

There’s still no recent proof of direct Naxalite-ISI ties, though there remains potential for contact through third party intermediaries, most of which are not Islamic groups, but Indian separatist groups (ULFA, NSCS, PLA-M)

I haven’t included the Dawood Ibrahim/ISI incident from August yet. I hope Animesh comes up with more concrete info – this is just background from digging around online.

I also included statements dating back to 2008, in which Maoists show an increasing interest in Islamic insurgencies and the Indian government injustices against them, compared to previous press releases.

Lashkar e-Taeba (LeT)

 November 10, 2010 – 2 LET operatives attend Maoist meeting in Chattisgargh according to uncorroborated report http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/lashkar-operatives-attended- maoist-meet-chhattisgarh-police-chief_100457604.html  On June 4, 2009 LET top operative Mohammed Umer Madani (chief recruiter in Nepal and India) was arrested in Dehli. He admitted he was in regular touch with several Maoist leaders and was scheduled to meet them in Bihar and Jharkhand. He had been instructed to recruit Maoists and forge a relationship with them, supply them with money and firearms, and recruit them to train in Pakistan. Another report says he was to recruit computer savvy graduates in metro areas and sailors in coastal areas, as well, for future Lashkar operations. “It seems that LeT wanted to exploit the areas which are under the control of Maoists to smuggle arms and explosives,” said a senior police officer.

Madani also planned to train those recruited from other parts of India in Maoist strongholds before sending them to Pakistan for further training.

Madani was carrying foreign currency including USD 8,000 which he had received from Italy to carry out terror activities in the country at the time of his arrest. Meanwhile, the police also received the details of his two accounts at Himalayan Bank and Everest Bank in Nepal and learnt that there had been several transactions over past few months, amounting to more than Rs 25 lakh. He had already distributed US $ 22,000 and Rs 9.5 lakh to sleeper cells in Bihar and UP.

Tamil Tigers – LTTE  Have long been rumors of LTTE and former LTTE training Naxalites, 2007-2009 appears to be strong years for the relationship – (wanted to get this out but can expand) http://www.asiantribune.com/node/7157 http://www.ipcs.org/article_details.php?articleNo=2355 www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=8207 www.indianexpress.com/news/philippines-expert- ltte .../551406/ www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KK11Df03.html

Shailen Sarkar Group of the Bangladesh Communist Party http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/war-on-naxals-outfit-from-bangladesh-opens-a- new-front/613724/

 An uncorroborated report from May 2010 from Union Home Ministry that incorporated Bangladeshi intelligence states that Maoists are sneaking into Bangladesh and undergoing training in camps established by the Sarkar faction.  “All the camps run by anti-India forces in Bangladesh receive some form of aid from ISI,” says article (will continue to look for ISI-Sarkar groups though there is not much about Sarkar on web)  “In August 2009, Shailen Sarkar crossed over to India from Satkhira (Kholaroya), bordering North 24-Parganas district, and built up contacts with Maoist leader Kanchan. The contact between the two continued till Kanchan died in a police encounter.”*

*Kanchan is the alias of Sandip Chanda, West Bengal state secretary, according to one article: “Sources said there was a sharp division in the West Bengal unit of CPI-Maoist ever since Sandip Chanda alias Kanchan was made state secretary, ignoring the claims of Dipak.” This Kanchan, however, was still alive as of March 2010 and did not die in a police encounter (?)

(http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_maoist-infighting-helped-west-bengal-police- arrest-telugu-dipak_1355378)

Northeast Separatist Groups

 Maoist leader Kishenji (Koteshwar Rao) discloses that the Maoists have joined forces with the following groups (below) in an interview from 2009  Same groups mentioned in interview with Maoist leader Azad, April 2010: http://www.bannedthought.net/india/CPI-Maoist-Docs/Interviews/Azad-Hindu- Interview-100414.pdf And in another Kishenji interview, Jan 2010: http://www.bannedthought.net/india/CPI-Maoist-Docs/Interviews/Kishenji- TheWeek-100117.pdf United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA)

National Social Council of Nagaland (NSCN) – Issac Muivah (have an entente cordiale with Maoists)

People’s Liberation Army of Manipur

The Maoists receive arms, ammunition, explosives, other equipment and training from the above groups, whom also receive weapons from the ISI.

 There is an ongoing trial from the 2004 seizure of 10 truck loads of arms going to the ULFA, one of many shipments coordinated by the ISI, witnesses have told the police and court.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/bangladesh-court-to-question- officials-in-2004-arms-seizure_100253628.html

http://sify.com/news/who-helps-the-naxals-news-features-jgzpnneehee.html

 “At least by late 2009, it got to be known that consignments, of weapons from illegal arms suppliers in Southeast Asia, including a large one amounting to 850 AK-47 rifles, 4,000 small weapons and several hundred grenades, were supplied to the Naxals through Burma and Bangladesh by an elaborate network run in the Northeast by the NSCN(I-M). With Bangladesh-based Ulfa leaders having extended their connections to China, supply of arms from Yunan province of southern China through insurgents in Burma became another new route. All these groups have ISI connections.” (Good find, but analytically, I’m skeptical that ISI would have strong inroads into China and Burma - Ben)

http://www.asianage.com/people/policy-policing-politics-people-and-terrorism- 625

 “There are indications that the Peoples War Group cadres received training in the handling of weapons and IEDs from some ex-LTTE cadres. Besides, they have entente cordiale with the NSCN (IM). Some batches of Naxals have also received arms training from the ULFA.”

http://www.indiafirstfoundation.org/publications/events/Eternal- India/PDF/V_2_n2.pdf

Other Pakistani ISI Evidence  The West Bengal chapter of the national student organization Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) that focuses on nation building described how Naxalites freely move into Nepal and Bangladesh, where the ISI supplies arms to north-east insurgents and asks them to pass them along to the Naxals. http://abvpwb.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/the-great-saga-of-abvp-braving-naxal- terror/  This fits in with the Pakistan-made Pica guns (a long-range light machine-gun - also seen in fighting in Kashmir) that were recovered from Naxalites by security forces in 2009. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_naxal-groups-spend-huge-money-to-buy- weapons-reveal-seized-records_1313479

People's War Group - merged with Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC) in 2004, consolidation of Maoist power was huge boost for Maoists – expanded geographic dispersion and militant base - shows that they brought ISI-ties with then - whether those ties are still as active today is the question

 2004 – Indian intel agencies reported evidence (seized weapons and ammunition) that the Naxalites were being used by ISI for drug-trafficking and pumping fake currency notes. In return, the Naxalites were getting weapons and training for making IEDShttp://in.rediff.com/news/2004/nov/25kanch.htm  A report from 2003 states there was direct contact between the Andhra Pradesh unit of the People's War Group [what became the Maoist's in 2004] with procurers who bring in arms from Bangladesh-based ISI [Inter Service Intelligence] agents via the riverine Sunderbans route, marking a “well-defined change in the hitherto- known and tenuous relationship between the extreme Left organization's Andhra unit and the ISI agents operating from the south Bengal delta, said officials here. The deals between the Naxalite outfit and the arms agents used to be through middlemen in the past."

That the People's War unit of Bengal did not know about these links could show intentional compartmentalization, or just reflect a lack of coordination with the different Maoist regions, or that the people they were getting the weapons from weren’t ISI themselves, but had been contracted out by ISI for cover.

The basic nature of the transaction remained financial, according to officials, not in order to help the Naxalites.  Similar incidents from 2000 - Senior People's War Group leaders visit Karachi via Dhaka to meet with ISI officials, evidence of drug trafficking and circulating of fake currency involving PWG/ISI, and PWG procuring arms from Bangladesh based agents through Sunderbans. http://books.google.com/books? id=pgASTMGL9GIC&pg=PA108&lpg=PA108&dq=ltte+leader+naxalite&source =bl&ots=97o- Uu0reM&sig=U9fKTvqtIBGsbFs7wsJ44gwzoks&hl=en&ei=zPnaTN3XDoP6lw e- spnhCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDIQ6AEwBg#v =onepage&q&f=false

Statements – various statements going back to 2008 concerning Maoist support of Islamic insurgency groups. These statements show a degree of alignment over anti- America, anti-imperialist, and self-determination issues. http://www.bannedthought.net/india/CPI-Maoist-Docs/index.htm

 Bandh in support of Kashmir insurgency – September 23, 2010 - http://www.bannedthought.net/india/CPI-Maoist-Docs/Statements- 2010/OnBandhAgainstKashmiriKillings-100923.pdf  Interview with Kishenji about Maoist support of Kashmir: “We have no patience for religious radicalism. If the Taliban attacks India, we will be the first to fight them. But we cannot deny Kashmir’s aspirations for self-determination. That is a secular aspiration focused on Kashmiriyat, not a Taliban-style religious fanaticism.” http://www.bannedthought.net/india/CPI-Maoist- Docs/Interviews/Kishenji-TheWeek-100117.pdf  Statement on the pending verdict in the Babri Masjid demolition case by Abhay, September 21, 2010. “Fight back the communal pogroms on minorities, especially Muslims which may be  perpetrated in the wake of the judgment on demolition of Babri Masjid!” http://www.bannedthought.net/india/CPI-Maoist-Docs/Statements- 2010/BabriJudgment-100921.pdf  Statement by Azad, April 24, 2009 supporting LTTE http://www.bannedthought.net/india/CPI-Maoist- Docs/Statements/AgainstSriLankanGenocide-090424.pdf  June 2009 interview with Kishenji (Koteshwar Rao) in which he says he did not support the 26/11 attack on Mumbai’s railway station because “most of the victims were Muslims,” and that Maoists don’t oppose an upsurge in Islamic activity because it is anti-US and anti-imperialist in nature. http://sify.com/news/who-helps-the-naxals-news-features-jgzpnneehee.html  August 17, 2008 – Statement by Azad - Maoists against the state’s condemnation of the Students Islamist Movement of India (SIMI) which had been involved with a series of bomb blasts. “It was a reiteration of the [government’s] policy to continue its brutal war on Muslims.” http://www.bannedthought.net/india/CPI- Maoist-Docs/Statements/BanOnSIMI-080817.pdf  Statement on Nov. 11, 2008 by Azad - against Hindu and Hindu-led government terrorism directed against Muslims http://www.bannedthought.net/india/CPI-Maoist- Docs/Statements/SaffronTerrorism2008.pdf