As local militancy dips, Maoists trying to create a 'Red Corridor' in the Northeast: Assam police

Police in Assam has said that interrogation of at least three Maoist members revealed that the banned organisation is trying to create a "red corridor" in the Northeastern states at a time several local insurgent groups have given up arms and signed agreements with the government.

"The Maoist is trying to create a red corridor in the Northeastern states to wage war in a coordinated way with other organisations with similar ideology. They want to set up a core committee in Assam to facilitate the command and control of the organisation, to arrange weapons for terror financing by way of extortion to intensify the illegal activities, to increase membership and impart training to the comrades for arms struggle, to set up camps at various locations to coordinate with other similar organisations for unified action against the security forces as a part of larger conspiracy to commit terrorist strikes as being done in other parts of the country," said a statement issued by Assam police.

This was stated following the arrests of three alleged Maoist leaders including Arun Kumar Bhattacharjee, who according to police, is a central committee member of the banned organisation. Bhattacharjee alias Kanchan da, 72, was arrested from a tea garden in South Assam's Cachar district on March 6. Police arrested another person, Akash Urang alias Rahul, who they claimed was a member of the Assam state organising committee of Maoist and a close aide of Kanchan da.

Bhattacharjee is a resident of Howrah in Bengal and was taking shelter in the tea garden in order to attract more people into the Maoist fold, particularly in the tea gardens.

"The Maoist had made attempts to spread their network in the tea garden areas in the past too. But now they are doing it in a more co-ordinated way," said a police officer. "Their targets are the workers in sick tea gardens in South Assam, where workers have not got their wages and are deprived of basic facilities," he said.

"They are in touch with some persons in Manipur and Tripura too," he said.

Guwahati police commissioner, Harmeet Singh on March 7 said the investigation revealed that there has been a lot of funds flows from the Eastern Regional Bureau of the Maoist to further the activities in Assam.

As police stumbled on plan of the Maoist to spread unrest in the Northeast, the Centre handed over the case to National Investigation Agency (NIA), which arrested a woman from Dibrugarh district in eastern Assam on April 3. The NIA on Sunday said Reema Orang alias Saraswati, an accused in the case, was absconding. Reema is the daughter of Sonichara, a resident of Mahaltal village in South Assam's Cachar district.

The NIA has so far conducted searches at several locations in Cachar, Dibrugarh and Dhubri district.

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