New Delhi: The Centre may be open to talks
with Maoists provided they abjure violence but some senior
police personnel in Naxal-hit regions feel it is a ruse to
regroup and re-arm themselves.
Police personnel in naxal-infested states like
Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattigarh believe the truce offer
initiated by the Naxals is insincere.
"The top brass of Maoists is controlled by People's
War Group (PWG), who were actually trained by LTTE. So, on the
lines of a strategic retreat, they are buying time to
re-build, equip themselves better, increase their cadres and
replenish resources," an Intelligence Bureau source told PTI.
V D Ram, former DGP, Jharkhand, is quite critical of
the truce offer. "Ceasefire talks will never be a welcome
step. Naxals want to avoid encounters in the months of
February, March and April when trees shed their leaves and it
becomes difficult to stay hidden in the hills," he says.
"The Maoists are suffering from a financial crunch
since police were able to strangulate their fund supply from
businessmen operating in Jhargram in West Bengal, and parts of
Bihar and Jharkhand," he adds.
An IPS officer in Chhattisgarh says, "Naxals believe
in the policy of overthrowing the government. They want talks
because in the last 7-8 months, they were under tremendous
pressure from the offensive by security forces."
Also, the Special Task Force and intelligence agencies
have been successful in creating a human intelligence network
which they have used effectively for the arrest of top leaders
like Telugu Deepak, he adds.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, March 08, 2010, 20:57