Maoists in PLA footsteps – Red rebels follow Manipur outfit’s ‘militarisation’ pattern: Cops - an interesting article

Maoists in PLA footsteps – Red rebels follow Manipur outfit’s ‘militarisation’ pattern: Cops
Guwahati, June 11: Police studying Maoist activities in Assam said the “militarisation process” of the red rebels here resembled the pattern followed by the People’s Liberation Army, Manipur rather than their style followed in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. A police report submitted to the Assam government recently said the CPI (Maoist) here was initially going slow in its armed struggle like the PLA and was not arming the masses to expand its base.
“There is no indication like elsewhere in the country that Assam Maoists during their initial period have tried to launch massive attacks against the state forces by using common people as human shields. Nor is there any indication of their attempt to arm the common masses to expand their bases. In short, the militarisation process of Assam Maoists follows the pattern of PLA rather than that of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha,” the report said.
Formed in 1978, the PLA in Manipur has been waging a guerrilla-based warfare against the army, paramilitary forces and state police, though it later declared its decision not to target Manipur police. Trained by the PLA of China and the NSCN (Isak-Muivah), it has been selective in recruiting people and arming them. The PLA has been fighting for establishing a separate socialist state of Manipur, a policy that matches the CPI (Maoist) ideology of a socialist country.
The report said the Maoists were following the PLA style, as they were aware that it was not easy to get a stronghold in Assam and in the bordering Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh, where the Paresh Barua-led Ulfa (Independent) has years of dominance. “Maoists in Assam are buying time to strengthen themselves politically by motivating more and more people in their fold and ideology.
Once they set up a strong base politically, it will be easier for them to launch an armed struggle systematically. Although they are slow, building a strong guerrilla force of their own in the Northeast is one of the motives of the CPI (Maoist),” a senior police official told The Telegraph. “Although Ulfa is losing its public support base, if the Maoist gains ascendancy by way of public mobilisation programmes, they will take the upper hand and fill the void created by Ulfa’s decadence,” the report said.
The link between PLA and CPI (Maoist) became “clearer” when the National Investigation Agency, in a chargesheet submitted last year, stated that in 2008 top Maoist leaders had met PLA members in a foreign country and signed a joint declaration for waging a “unified” war against India. The alliance was formed for procuring arms, ammunition and communication devices for CPI (Maoist) for carrying out terrorist activities in the country, the chargesheet said.