Click to play videoNew Delhi: On October 14.2007, a bomb blast in Ludhiana left seven people dead and 30 injured. But now, the interrogation of the main accused in the blast has thrown up details of a new but disturbing trend.
The Sikh militants, allegedly from the Babbar Khalsa, are now trying for new avenues to get arms and ammunition and this time, it is not from Pakistan but from inside India.
According to a secret interrogation report sent in January by the Additional Director General, Punjab Police, the militants were in touch with the NSCN-IM rebels in Nagaland for procurement of weapons.
That means that despite the 11-year-long ceasefire with India, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim led by Thuingaleng Muivah has been actively involved in the business of illegal weapons, in clear violation of ceasefire ground-rules.
“It is concerning development because so far whatever arms were being sold in the North East, they were generally for the local consumption and they were part of the drug trade,” said President, Control Arms Foundation of India, Lt Gen B S Mallik.
Sources in NSCN-IM have told CNN-IBN that while there were nearly 2,500 armed cadres in the Naga rebel outfit in 1997 when they first declared cease-fire today the NSCN-IM has a stregth of nearly 7000 armed cadres
Sources in Delhi say that the Sikh rebels have used NSCN-IM to access the weapons black market in South-East Asia.
North-East rebel groups have access to cheap Chinese weapons that are smuggled in through Burma. Sources indicate that NSCN-IM is selling these weapons to Sikh extremists. The ULFA sells it to Indian and Nepali Maoists and jehadi groups in Bangladesh.
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