Terrorists Inland Ties and Cross-Border Connections

The arrest of two insurgent-terrorists of the Manipur based People Liberation Army (PLA) on October, 1, 2011, from a hotel in Delhi’s Paharganj area by the special cell of Delhi police, has reportedly revealed a plan to form a new outfit, to be called 'Strong United Front', in collaboration with Jammu & Kashmir (J&K)-based militant outfits. Acting on a tip-off, the police arrested suspected insurgents N. Dilip Singh (51), head of the PLA’s 'external affairs' and his deputy, Arun Kumar Singh Salam (36) and recovered several documents from the two, who were in Delhi to provide logistics, training, weapons and communications to other insurgents. The police seized a laptop which revealed that the PLA and Naxal- Maoists had been instructed by their superiors to discuss modalities.

Special commissioner (special cell) P.N.Aggrawal reportedly said, “After the arrest of Dilip Singh and Arun Kumar Singh Salam, the Manipur police was informed about the details of other members based in Imphal. The Manipur police has arrested three more persons in Imphal.”

Investigation also revealed that the PLA provided logistics, training, weapons and communication systems to the CPI (Maoist) and had earlier 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.

Linkages between Naxal-Maosts and North Eastern terrorist groups brought out by this writer a year ago, are now being elaborated in media following the apprehension of some of the latter groups’ leaders / senior operatives. Interrogation and investigation following the arrests of Raj Kumar Meghen, heading United National Liberation Front (UNLF), Anthony Shimray, a key operative of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim’s Isak-Muivah faction (NSCN-IM) and Aditya Bora, formerly of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), caught over the past few months have revealed a number of links with Naxal-Maoists apart from other anti-India activities and plans thereof.

Media reports from Imphal in November 2009 stated that fifty hard-core terrorists from Manipur's People Liberation Army (PLA, a close ally of UNLF), are imparting armed training to Naxal- Maoists while NSCN (IM) is supplying arms to them.

A thoroughly planned operation by Research and Analysis Wing  (R&AW) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) culminated on 02 October 2010, when they apprehend Anthony Shimray, a key operative of NSCN-IM outside Patna railway station. Shimray, the nephew of its general secretary, T. Muivah, is not only a powerful member of the outfit’s top leadership, but also its chief arms procurer and its major China link. He also turned out to be a gold mine of information about China’a support to NSCN-IM and other insurgent-turned-terrorist groups in India .

As Shimray was in Bangkok , some painstaking intelligence work was done in getting to know his travel plans to renew his visa from Thailand to Nepal to Bihar to eventually reach Manipur and Nagaland for meeting the NSCN-IM leaders and cadres. Kept under observation, he was nabbed before he could reach his destinations in the North East.

While Shimray’s interrogation disclosures reportedly amounting to a hundred pages only confirm and elaborate on what was mentioned in features written by this writer in this daily about Naxal-Maoists, ULFA, NSCN-IM, UNLF and other groups of Manipur and Assam, they clearly highlight yet again the duplicity of China, Pakistan and Myanmar. Speaking at length about NSCN-IM, Shimray also revealed Chinese intelligence agencies’ links with ULFA and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the UNLF. These links have significantly increased and extended since Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government assumed charge in Bangladesh , before which Pakistan ’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had wide presence with a firm hold on ULFA and other North East based groups, whose representatives and camps were based there.

In as recently as September, 2010, Shimray held talks with his Bangkok middleman Willy Narue, for procuring arms. He even requested his suppliers to deliver a consignment meant for Arunachal Pradesh directly “from the Chinese side”. His covert trip to India last October, when he got caught was quite obviously in connection with trafficking arms. Shimray also told his interrogators how he procured arms from the Chinese in late 2007. “It was decided by our leadership stationed in New Delhi to strengthen the weaponry of the organisation,” he revealed. With Narue’s help, he contacted one Yuthuna, a Chinese representative of Bangkok based ‘TCL’, the authorised subsidiary of the Chinese arms company China Xinshidai, Beijing , described on its website as dealing in the import and export of specialised products by China ’s defence industries. The final shopping list included 600 AK series rifles, nearly 6 lakh ammunition rounds, 200 sub-machine guns, pistols, rocket launchers, light machine guns and 200 kg of RDX. The deal was worth $1.2 million, with an additional $1 million for shipment from China . The consignment was sent through a shipping agent in Kittichai of Bangkok-based Intermarine Shipping. It was to be “loaded from Beihei, a south Chinese port. The destination was Cox’s Bazaar”, a major landing station on the Bangladesh coast. “All the correspondence with Willy Narue, our leadership in New Delhi , Nagaland and others in Thailand and China ,” Shimray says, “was made on e-mail to maintain the secrecy of the entire project.” The information was saved as a draft and accessed by Chinese intelligence using Shimray’s password. Shimray also recalled his visit to China in 1994 for a joint arms deal for NDFB. The “procurement of the arms and ammunition” was “made from the Chinese company NORINCO”. This consignment included “1,800 pieces of arms and one lakh rounds, which included AK series rifles, M16 automatic assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and pistols”. The money came from a Naga businessman using Calcutta-based hawala operators. Again, in 1996, “arms and ammunition were brought from Beijing to Cox’s Bazaar in a North Korean ship”. After the consignment was unloaded in small boats on the high seas and transferred in trucks to NSCN(IM) camps in Bangladesh , it traveled to the Northeast.

In another significant revelation, Shimray details how China ’s relationship with the NSCN(IM) was strengthened in 2008 when it agreed to host their “permanent representative”. Guwahati corresponedent of The Asian Age recently wrote a detailed report on China ’s assured support to North East terrorist groups.

On 12 February 2011, in what was reported to be the first direct evidence of the Naxal- Maoist link in Assam and other northeastern states, Orissa police nabbed three Assamese youths from Saranda forest area of Sunderdgarh district in Orissa bordering Jharkhand, while they were coming from a Maoist camp. Rourkela SP Diptesh Patnaik reportedly claimed that one of the arrested Maoists, Aditya Bora, was a former United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) member. He said Bora was head of Upper Assam Leading Committee of CPI (Maoist) floated early last year. Since few weeks prior to his arrest, Bora had circulated press statement in the local media claiming the existence of the Naxal- Maoists’ base in Assam, Though, top Maoist leaders were found to have been in touch with elusive ULFA boss-man Paresh Baruah and other terrorist outfits of Manipur, this was the first time that their direct link in Assam was found. On 06 November 2010, the interrogation of ULFA operative Tarjan Majhi, who was arrested by the Assam police, revealed that Maoists have established links with another insurgent outfit raised in Assam ’s Sonitpur district through the ULFA. Majhi claimed that an ULFA self-styled sergeant-major Das had provided arms to Adivasi Peoples Army (APA) cadre in Majbat area of Udalguri district and helped them contact the Maoists. He also admitted that APA rebels were formed in Sonitpur in 2001 and had the strength of 150 cadres operating in Darrang and Udalguri districts. Earlier, a senior police official from the Chhattisgarh told a Nagaland based daily that Maoists felt that the “Northeast insurgent camps provide expertise in guerilla training and especially smuggling of arms and ammunition from neighbouring countries”.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi recently confirmed close operational cooperation between Naxal elements. and “anti-talk faction of the ULFA” under Paresh Baruah, who has threatened him and his Assam Congress colleagues. Baruah is also trying hard to recruit more cadres.

What has clearly emerged is (a) China upping the ante against India by renewing and reinvigorating old growing connections with NSCN-IM, offering/increasing its support to ULFA and other terrorist groups in the NorthEast, which lost their foothold/sanctuary in Bangladesh as well as to Naxal-Maoists, (b) NSCN-IM’s renewed efforts to arm itself despite fourteen years of its dialogue with New Delhi, (c) ULFA, NSCN-IM and PLA actively providing training and weapons to Naxal-Maoists and (d) Myanmar’s insincerity about denying sanctuary and support to these terrorist groups despite the quid-pro-quo of doing so for much assistance it is getting from India.

Central intelligence agencies reportedly pointing to the possibility of Northeast-based militant organisations having 'close links' with J&K militant outfits, should not at all come as a surprise. It should be borne in mind that both J&K and Northeast have old connections with Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence(ISI). The Northeastern groups’ ISI connections in Bangladesh got shaken when they escaped or were chased out / arrested soon after Awami League came to power. However, Chinese intelligence soon took over support/supply to the Northeastern groups.

While New Delhi maintains a studied silence on the Chinese hand in the North East or arms from across the border reaching Naxal- Maoists in central India , R&AW and NIA have shown some positive results – a trend which must be improved upon and relentlessly maintained. Also very important for India is to build the capability of effective covert strike beyond its borders.   

Col Anil Bhat (Retd) is Editor, WordSword Features & Media and a defence analyst based in New Delhi

Views expressed are personal