Sunday, 11 March 2012

Naxal fire power: Indian Maoists are armed with 3000 rockets


Top Maoist Sadhana Ramakrishna has confessed to the police that they have improvised rocket launchers, rocket propelled grenades and spare parts for about 3000 rockets. The aforementioned warheads have already reached Maoists in Dandakarnya in Chhattisgarh. “A large number of rocket launchers might have already reached Danadakaranya, which is a cause of serious concern for the security agencies,” said a police official.
The Maoist unit was busted when spare parts for 1000 rockets were being shifted to DK. They were seized from different transport agencies in Raipur. The police said that the Maoists have spent Rs 4 to Rs 5 crore on rocket launchers and RPGs in the past two years. It was also found that the Maoists are moving under fake identities and have even purchased a flat in Kolkata under a fake name and have restarted their old couriers system.
The police said that there is a change in the rocket designs compared to those seized from Tech Madhu in 2005 and 2006 in Andhra Pradesh. The old design was tested in the Nallamala forests and was used in the attack on the police station in Durgi in Guntur district. The efficiency of those rockets was about 60 per cent. Though there were plans to improvise the designs, it could not be done after the arrest of Tech Madhu at Chennai and other members of production units at Bhopal and Rourkela in 2006.
A senior police official said, “With the recent arrests, it was learnt that they have changed the design of the rocket and might have successfully tested it in Dandakaranya, then they may have started manufacturing rocket launchers and rocket propelled grena-des on a very large scale.”
In his confession the Maoist said, “I order the manufacture of some of the parts from local workshops and send the finished parts to Dankaranya. As there is the possibility of exposure in the manufacturing of some parts like rocket fin holders and grenades, we send the aluminium and zinc blocks and the corresponding dyes and moulds into Dandakaryana to manufacture them in the jungle itself.”
The supply unit registered a workshop in Kolkata by the name of “Durga Techni-cal Services” and is carrying out its activities there. A total of Rs 1.23 crore was seized during the searches in Mumbai and Kolkata. Parts of rocket propelled grenades worth Rs 10 lakh were seized at Raipur too. The state police and the Kolkata STF arrested Sadanala Ramakrishna, a native of Karimnagar and chief of technical research and arms manufacturing of the CPI Maoist along with four others on February 29 in Kolkata.

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