India Youths join the maoists

Jorhat, Oct. 29: Nearly 30 youths from Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Sivasagar districts of Upper Assam, who had gone outside the state for employment, may have joined the Maoists. Sources in the police department said an inquiry was on to ascertain whether the youths (all men) who reportedly went outside Assam two years ago to work for private firms were really employed in the companies or had joined Maoist organisations.
The suspicion arose on the basis of inputs collected by the police from local sources that these youths, who had left in 2012, had not visited their homes since and seldom called their family and friends. These youths hail from the tea gardens and villages of Chabua, Tingkhong and Rajgarh areas in Dibrugarh district, Sadiya, Panitola, Guijan and Tangana areas in Tinsukia district and from Charaideo subdivision of Sivasagar district.
The sources said these are Maoist-sensitive areas, from where at least 10 youths have joined extremists in the past. The most wanted Maoist leader of Assam, Adiyta Bora, is from Tingkhong. He was arrested in Odisha in 2011 and brought to Assam. He has since jumped bail. In May 2012, four Maoist cadres were killed in an encounter with the police in Sadiya, which was the first such incident in Assam. The sources said the parents and guardians of the 30 youths under scanner had told the police that their children had gone to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and were employed in the hospitality sector, private security agencies and construction companies.
However, the guardians were unable to provide proper addresses of their wards’ residences or employment firms. They reportedly told the police that their children did not call them up frequently in order to save money. The police have not been able to contact the youths’ mobile number (prepaid SIM cards). So they have asked the mobile companies to provide details of the user and the locations of the said numbers.
The guardians also told the police that their boys had not sent them any money. Most of the parents do not have bank accounts and the police are in the process of checking whether any deposits have been made into the accounts of those who have. A senior police official told The Telegraph that investigations conducted so far had raised suspicions that these youths might have joined the Maoists. He said the police were collecting information on the youths from their counterparts in the southern states on the basis of information collected from the youths’ parents.