Maoists are going ‘desi’. At least, the Visakhapatnam police believe so, going by the weapons and ammunition seized by them from the Maoists in the last three years. Stringent vigil by the security forces and fund crunch are suspected to have forced the Maoists to go for local weapons, including country-made guns and pistols like tapanchas.
For the past several years, the Maoists have reportedly smuggled in weapons from neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. These weapons were said to have been mostly sourced from US, China and even some terrorist organisations. However, a majority of their weapons were manufactured at the Technical Research Arms Manufacturing (TRAM) units established in different states.
However, over the last three years, the weapons seized by the Visakhapatnam police comprised mostly Indian-made weapons. As per the information available with SBX (special branch on extremist activities) of Visakhapatnam, the police seized four .303 rifles, two SBBL (smooth bore breech loading) guns, three tapanchas, a single long barrel gun and 18 SBBL cartridges, apart from ammunition for the above weapons. They also recovered 11 land mines, three grenades, 20 Claymore mines, a directional mine, two pressure mines and 29 detonators.
Some of these weapons were snatched from the police during various attacks along the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB).
“Earlier, many foreign countries, including India’s neighbours, helped Maoists by providing them advanced weapons along with combat training. But it now appears that the forces have succeeded in tightening security and hence, we did not come across any foreign manufactured weapons during the seizures and also when the Maoists surrendered,” said a top police official. It can be assumed that loss of foreign contacts and funding sources could be a major reason for the drop in foreign weapons, he said. Speaking to TNIE, Visakhapatnam superintendent of police (Rural) Vikram Jeet Duggal said, “Most of the mid-level leaders, dalam members and other surrendered cadre carried Indian-made weapons. Similar weapons were recovered from Maoist arms dumps. However, we cannot rule out Maoists of higher cadre like central committee and state committee members using weapons such as AK 47 or SLRs. We have not seen advanced weapons like rocket launchers during encounters in the last five to six years,” he said.