Maoists getting arms from China: India

New Delhi, Nov 8 : Home Secretary G.K. Pillai Sunday said he was 'sure' Maoist guerrillas in India were acquiring weapons from China - the first time an Indian official has said China was complicit in supplying arms to the left extremists who Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the biggest national security threat.

Speaking to reporters here, Pillai said the leftist guerrillas follow "the philosophy of Marxism and Leninism and have their own brand of ideology".

"The Chinese are large suppliers of small arms and I am sure the Maoists get it from them," the home secretary said.

Pillai did not elaborate whether the Maoists were getting arms from Chinese arms smugglers or official agencies.

Asked whether the government had any information if the Maoists' links with China went beyond arms, he said: "You should ask them (Maoists)."

Pillai had earlier linked Indian leftist insurgents with the the Maoists in Nepal. But he maintained that there was no clear evidence about the Nepali Maoists assisting or providing arms to their Indian counterparts.

Well-armed Maoist militants, owing allegiance to ultra-left groups that denounce India's constitution and laws, pose a serious security challenge in over 220 Indian districts, having a sway over vast tracts of contiguous hinterland in central, east and southern India populated by tribals and deprived communities.

China was earlier alleged to be backing, both politically and militarily, leftist insurgents called Naxalites - the forerunners of the present Maoists - in the seventies, but once diplomatic ties with India improved their support for Indian leftist rebels had tapered off and Beijing had declared repeatedly that it had nothing whatsoever to do with India Maoists who took their name and inspiration from Mao Zedong, former Communist Party of China chairman.

--IANS