Maoists target youths for recruitment

Patna: Maoists in the eastern Indian state of Bihar are currently seeking CVs from unemployed youths to be recruited on a monthly salary of Rs2,500 (Dh189) to Rs3,000 (Dh227).

Notably, the Communist Party of India-Maoists (CPI-Maoist), which has gone on a recruitment drive, has been declared a "terrorist outfit" through a Union Home Ministry order dated June 22 this year.

Police said the outlawed Maoist outfit had been frequently pasting hand-written posters in the rural areas of Bihar and asking youths to send their CVs to get them enrolled in the organisation.

The matter came to light when the local police in course of their routine search operations came across many such posters pasted on walls, trees, and government buildings in the inaccessible Bhim dam areas of eastern Bihar's Munger district, promising lucrative pay packages to the youths willing to join the Left militia.

According to the police officials, the Maoists are offering monthly salaries between Rs2,500 to Rs3,000. Reports said the willing youths have been asked to state clearly their academic qualifications and why she/he wants to join the organisation.

Officials said the Maoists are on a recruiting spree because more than 500 top Maoists were arrested during intensive raids launched in Bihar and neighbouring Jharkahnd in the last year.

What cost them dearly, police informed, was their growing dependence on mobile phones. It's because of this use of technology that police were able to track their movements and later managed to arrest several hardcore ultras, who had been evading arrest for a long time.

Since then, mobile towers have become prime targets of the Maoists in Bihar and in the last about six months more than 20 towers have been destroyed. Maoists have also banned the use of mobile phones for their cadres to prevent arrests.

"Yes, they [Maoists] are luring away the unemployed youths and recruiting them. If they are not recruiting, then how does their number continue to grow even after many arrests?" asked the local deputy inspector general of police of Munger range, Amit Kumar. He said he had alerted the police to keep a watch on the movements of the Maoists and prevent their recruitment drive.

A senior Intelligence Bureau official, who did not want to be named, said the Maoists had been using the forest corridors, from the south of Bihar to Orissa, to prepare the new recruits and provide them with training in guerrilla combat.

It was the reasult of this rigorous training that the Maoists were able to carry out many deadly attacks in the recent past in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, and Orissa. In West Bengal they were able to "liberate" a large part of its areas, to which the state government launched a counter operation to reclaim this zone.

Police say the hilly terrain and inadequate strength of the police in the region are proving helpful for the Maoists to carry out their training with ease. They added that the Maoists have been using stolen police weapons to train their cadres. According to an official report, Maoists looted a total of 57 police weapons in 2004, 54 in 2005, 11 in 2006, 37 in 2007, 56 in 2008, and so far 11 this current year.

Official reports say a total of 150 blocks in 30 out of Bihar's 38 districts are currently affected by the Maoist activities.