Post Report
DARJEELING, Sept 19:After separatist militants from north-east India, Nepal’s Maoists have lately emerged as a major security threat in north Bengal, the cradle of India’s first armed Maoist uprising more popularly known as the Naxalite movement.
It was at Naxalbari in Darjeeling district that radical CPI (ML) cadres led by the late Charu Mazumdar had first taken up arms to establish the rule of the proletariat in India in 1967.
What has begun to worry authorities here more is news about the possibility of north Bengal-based ultra-Left forces forming a joint forum basically to resist “police harassment.” These parties allege that security forces have been harassing their cadres in the name of keeping the region free of Nepali Maoists.
Elsewhere in south Bengal, police have already begun a crackdown on ultra-Leftists to keep them away from the PWG and the MCC. Ultra-Left forces earlier accused the Left Front government in West Bengal of torturing people arrested for their alleged links with the two radical organisations. On the other hand, Nepal also suspects that the MCC and the PWG have developed a nexus with its Maoist rebels.
A police official said, “Nepali Maoists have put extra pressure on security agencies in north Bengal which has seen a steady rise in Kamtapuri militancy since the mid 1990s.”
The underground Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), which has been fighting for a separate state for Rajbanshis in north Bengal, has killed a number of people, mostly CPM cadres, in recent months.
Police suspect that the KLO was earlier involved in the looting of money from the railways and abduction of tea garden officials.
Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya alleged that the KLO had set up camps in Bhutan in collaboration with the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). He requested Thimpu to evict the militants from its territory. Not only this, Bodo militants are also active in north Bengal that has a common border with Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bihar and Assam.
In view of all this, police recently initiated special security measures in Darjeeling to prevent the Nepali insurgents from setting up a base there.
The official said, ” We are more concerned about Darjeeling which shares a common ethnicity with Nepal.” Intelligence agencies claimed that the Nepali Maoists were trying to build up a network in Darjeeling, Kurseong, Naxalbari, Khoribari, Bagdogra and Siliguri (all in Darjeeling district). In August 2001, senior Nepali mainstream Communist leaders had held a secret meeting with the Maoist top brass near Siliguri.
The Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj, which was banned by India for its alleged links with the Maoists, was active in Darjeeling district as well as the neighbouring Dooars for a long time. This apart, the Darjeeling hills and the Dooars had witnessed an armed movement for a Gorkhaland state in the 1980s.
Recently, two residents of Darjeeling district were arrested for procuring arms for the Nepali Maoists. Besides, two former Gorkhaland activists have been arrested for allegedly arming people who hijacked IC 814 from Kathmandu to Kandahar in December 1999. Security agencies have been keeping a record of people who come to Darjeeling district from Nepal and Bhutan for employment. They fear that the Maoists may try to enter the region as workers in private firms. They have tightened vigil on hotels and bus stands. Similarly, Sikkim has also tightened security in the border region. Four Nepali nationals were earlier arrested with explosives on the Sikkim-Darjeeling border.
This apart, the recent arrest of Sattar Ali, a rickshaw puller, in Binnaguri in neighbouring Jalpaiguri district, for his alleged links the ISI has added more to the government’s woes. Police claimed that objectionable documents and Rs.87,000/ were seized from him.