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Tamil Tigers Training Nepalese Rebels:

An Interview Revealing All

NEW DELHI, July 8: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers as they are commonly known, are providing military training to the Maoist rebels of Nepal in Bihar near the Nepalese borders. Some French trainers have also been hired, a Maoist rebel leader revealed to the South Asia Tribune.

Talking to this correspondent in a recorded conversation, the Maoist rebel said the Tamil Tigers were helping in formation of human bomb squads for suicidal missions. Women and teenage boys and girls were being recruited for these squads. They also carry cyanide capsules with them.

This Maoist leader had recently visited Delhi from Purniya, Bihar. He has a link here with a Naxalite intellectual-activist whom the Indian security agencies often use to harass for his sympathies with Naxalites.

This correspondent talked to the Maoist leader in the Capital. This person has the responsibility to maintain contacts with sympathizers, cadres and different operating groups of the Maoist forces.

It is interesting to note that Indian sensitive agencies are entirely unable to cope with the situation despite having immense resources. The sensitive agencies are yet busy to malign these forces by propagating false information to the media about defections and divisions within the Indian Maoist forces.

A piece of such false information is contained in a document in Hindi entitled, “MCC-I Ke Nitibhrasht Shadyantrakari Netaon Ke Bure Mansoobe Ko Dhwast Karen” (Defeat the Bad Intentions Of the Corrupt And Conspiring Leaders Of the MCC-I). It was E-mailed recently to this correspondent by someone, possibly under the fictitious name of Aasif Nadeem.

But the fact is that all Maoist rebels and parties, including People’s War Group (PWG) and Maoist Communist Center (MCC) had merged to form a new outfit namely Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-M) on October 15, 2004. Muppala Lakshman Rao alias Ganapathi Rao has recently been elected its Secretary. They have agreed to an international proposal to develop a Red Zone (RZ) from Nepal to Sri Lanka.

The rebel leader told the South Asia Tribune: “The decision to assist the Maoist rebels of Nepal was taken at a secret meeting of the Maoist activists of eight countries held in Kolkata in India. They also discussed the present status of rebellion in India.”

“The Maoists of Peru, Netherlands, Norway, France, Germany, Sri Lanka, Nepal and India participated in the meeting. The Tamil Tigers and rebels of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) were present as special invitees,” he added.

The rebel leader told this correspondent that this meeting, under the auspices of the Coordination Committee of Maoists Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) was held last year. The participants were not ready to give recognition to the MCC of India as it was involved only in the killings of opponents rather than in the formation of base among the deprived and exploited people.

“The meeting paved the way for the merger of the PWG and MCC, and an organization, namely the Friends of Indian Revolution (FOIR) was formed. It was decided in the meeting that the LTTE would provide full support to the Indian and Nepalese Maoists and Indian Maoists would provide shelter and training camps to the Maoist rebels of Nepal,” he said.

The leader said: “The task of training the rebels was entrusted to the LTTE and French Maoists. According to rebel sources, a training camp of the Tamil Tigers is being run at district Narkatiaganj and Ghorasahan. Ghorasahan is located between Sitamarhi and Champaran near Nepal borders in Bihar.”

Tamil Tigers have formed four Human Bomb Dalams (squads) of women. Each Dalam has 20 women. Similarly, 12 Dalams of the Suicidal Squads have been formed. Each Dalam has 40 young boys and girls. Indian and Nepalese Maoists are being jointly trained in this camp.

“French trainers are providing training to Nepalese rebels in the hilly terrain of Uttaranchal. Such training camps are being run in Indian districts near Nepal border, such as Tanakpur, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, etc. These camps are solely for the Maoist rebels of Nepal that are being supervised by Indian sympathizers.”

When asked if the Maoist forces of India and Nepal would assist the Tamil Tigers in their operations, he said: “They are much more resourceful than us. We are seeking their help in the training and other logistic supports.”

Apart from West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, all the poverty-ridden areas of Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh have come under the influence of the Maoist forces. Districts of Bihar, adjacent to Nepal, such as Champaran, Betia, Narkatiaganj, Muzaffarpur, Sivan, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Purniya have become strongholds of Maoist rebels of Indian and Nepal.

Similarly, districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, such as, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Mirzapur, Basti, Gonda, Deoria, Bahraich, Balrampur have been developed into the ‘New Belt’.

The Nepalese Home Ministry has designated these districts as Sensitive Class-A, namely Dolakha, Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Kavrepalanchowk, Sindhpalchowk, Gorkha, Dang, Surkhet and Achham while other sensitive districts are Khotang, Okhaldhunga, Udaipur, Marwanpur, Lalitpur, Nuwakot, Dhading, Tanahu, Lamjung, Parbat, Baglung, Gulmi, Arghakachi, Bardiya, Dailekh, Jumla and Dolpa.

The Red Zone and a safe corridor is being made by the rebels that starts from Nepal, and covers all of the Northern hilly area of Uttaranchal, East Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, South Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh up to Sri Lanka.

The Maoists of India and Nepal have also begun joint operations. Recently in a hamlet Madhuban at Bihar-Nepal border, the rebels of the two countries simultaneously attacked two banks, a post office, a petrol pump and the house of a Member of Parliament Sita Ram Singh (from Laloo Prasad Yadav’s political party RJD) in broad daylight.

There were some women rebels also who were in shalwar-qameez with red dupattas (scarfs), while others wore jeans and shirts. According to witnesses, some of them had Mongoloid features and they were talking in Nepalese.

The rebel leader said: “This was the first time in India that the rebels of India and Nepal have operated together in unison. But some of our comrades were arrested while undergoing medical treatment.”

When asked if similar operations would also be carried out in Nepal in the near future, the leader said: “Of course. Why not? We have to make the whole region, right from Nepal to the deep South, including some parts of Sri Lanka as an Independent Red Zone where the rule of the masses would be established.”

The rebels of the two countries, in this joint operation, looted about 1.2 million rupees from the branch of State Bank of India and Central Bank of India. They also looted the cash box from the post office and the treasury at the block office.

They torched the police station and looted the armory, besides ransacking the house of two supporters of the MP. They are also believed to have taken away an undisclosed amount of cash and jewellery from these houses.

Maoists are also strengthening their positions in the Terai region of Uttaranchal that has jeopardized the affluent peasantry of the region, which greatly consists of Sikh migrants.

In this regard, the rebel leader said: “The Terai region is adjacent to Nepal, and it falls under the Independent Red Zone. I daresay that whosoever would resist, he has to pay the price.”
The Nepalese Maoists and their Indian sympathizers and counterparts, Naxalites, have made the Terai region a base from where they are waging a war against Sikh farmers, because they consider them as exploiters of the tribal and the local deprived natives.

@ The Statesman

July 15, 2005. — Maoist activists from the state are visiting their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh frequently to receive training from a central military commander in-charge of CPI-Maoist operations in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. Police suspect that this commander is probably the mastermind behind the recent killings of three CPI-M activists in two separate operations in Bankura and Purulia.

Known among his comrades and Intelligence officers as Kishanji, he had been trained by LTTE commanders in all aspects of guerrilla operations, which he has been inculcating among the Maoist divisional commanders in these four states.

Senior police officers said he is now looking to unleash a new wave of terror in the area after police managed to arrest two senior Maoist military leaders in April and May this year.

The West Midnapore special operations group also managed to arrest Ajay alias Nilu, the technical head of the Maoists in the state, from Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas.

“Ajay was a major catch as he was an expert in mine preparation. A science graduate from a rich family, he married Jyotsna Mahato, another Maoist, and used to supply his know-how to extremists. Ajay received training from ‘Kishanji’. He came back from Andhra Pradesh, prepared munitions and supplied them to the Maoists,” a former member of the now-dissolved SOG told The Statesman. According to SOG, Gora, a Maoist area commander arrested from Malda recently, told police during interrogation that he used to provide arms training to selected cadre and helped in strengthening their organisation by roping in more youths.

Intelligence sources said Kishanji originally belonged to People’s War and became the CPI-Maoist central military commander when it merged with the MCC later. Another top leader, Kishanda, is suspected to have given his approval to the recent attacks.

“After the arrest of Gora and Ajay, we suspect that Kishanji along with other members, felt that there was a need to once again strike terror. Hence the recent attacks,” he said.

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