TACKLING RED TERROR
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Maoists helped by Chinese arms smugglers: Centre
Published on Mon, Nov 09, 2009 at 03:36, Updated on Mon, Nov 09, 2009 at 08:23 in 
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New Delhi: Naxal attacks in India have been exhibiting the audacity of the attackers.
Home Secretary G K Pillai said the Naxals were getting arms from India's neighbour, China. This is the first time the Centre has officially admitted to any body from China to have had a hand in the Naxal movement.
Though Pillai ruled out the direct involvement of China, he pointed to the big Chinese smugglers and suppliers of small arms from China as the culprits.
"Chinese have large supplier and arms smugglers and the Maoists get it from them," Pillai said.
Tensions have been escalating between India and China over the visit of Buddhist Tibetan leader Dalai Lama to Tawang.
India has chosen not to highlight the strife in opinions on either sides of the Indo-China border.
Yet, the admission from the Union Home Ministry that the Indian Maoists have Chinese support is a first from India has come as a shock and a revelation.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram rules out the involement of the Chinese government.
"There is no evidence that China is supporting the CPI Maoists," Chidambaram told CNN-IBN>
Asked whether there was any external help that China may be giving, Chidambaram said that the fact is that at the end of it all, "They (the Maoists) are able to acquire arms."
Asked as to where he thought the arms came from, Chidambaram said, "I do not know where they are getting it from but I do know that they are getting them via Myanmar and via Bangladesh."
While the Centre is reluctant to point fingers at a powerful neighbour, Pillai said that 80 per cent of small arms are manufactured by the United states, China, Pakistan and Iran; and that most of these arms are harming the third world rather badly.
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