Rumours have long been afloat about Maoist links with northeastern rebels. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had once said that he only had to tackle the Maoist threat in his state. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has confirmed that the Manipur-based People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had set up an office in Kolkata to maintain links with the Maoists. It has been mentioned in a charge sheet submitted at Guwahati High Court. It shows that Gogoi had underestimated the threat. Sources reveal that Maoists used to frequent the office in Kolkata to hand over money to the PLA leadership in order to buy weapons for the former. The weapons were bought through the PLA outfit in Myanmar and sent to the Maoists through Bangladesh. In return, Maoists helped the PLA to buy ammonium nitrate and send it to Assam through Kolkata-based transporters. The nexus started several years ago. A series of meetings between the two parties were held in Kolkata and they met in Myanmar in 2006. The PLA conducted training camps for Maoists in Jharkhand.
Clearly it was a well-orchestrated plot and the network was far-flung. Even neighbours like Myanmar and Bangladesh have been implicated. It is also not clear whether the PLA of Manipur was the only rebel body involved. Ammonium nitrate is used in explosives and the repeated bomb blasts in Assam suggest that the network extended to militants in that state as well. It is a sad reflection on the efficiency of the NIA that it took over 5 years to unearth confirmed evidence about the nexus. Nor is it known if the threat has been wiped out following the detailed disclosure
