Police arrest Maoist politburo member in Assam

Guwahati: A CPI (Maoist) politburo member, wanted in several cases, was arrested from Silchar in Cachar district of Assam, police said today.

Anukul Chandra Naskar alias Pareshda (65) was caught by a joint team of Assam police and special intelligence branch of Andhra Pradesh Police on Wednesday and brought to Guwahati for interrogation yesterday.

Naskar was a leader in the eastern wing of the outfit and wanted in several cases in Andhra Pradesh, police said. Taking him into custody here for five days, police would interrogate him before handing him over to AP Police, they said.

On being asked by reporters here why he was arrested, Naskar said, “I don’t know. They (police) are claiming I am a Maoist.” Police said Naskar (65), hailing from Balia area under Sonarpur Police Station in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, had joined the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) in 1967.

He became a central committee and politburo member in 1985 after the MCC and the People’s War Group merged to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004. Stating that he was also a monitor of the outfit’s eastern wing that includes West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Jharkhand, they said, Naskar had come to Assam to strengthen the Maoists links with the underground groups in Manipur and Tripura.

He was here also to help recently arrested CPI (Maoist)’s central training unit instructor Siraj Rabha and develop links with the Manipur-based People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to procure arms and train their fresh recruits, they said.

PTI