The Chhattisgarh police recovered a Heckler & Koch G3 Rifle used by NATO and Pakistan army after an encounter with Maoists in Murner village of Kanker in North Bastar on Friday.
Since these kinds of rifles are not used by Indian forces or security personnel but are used by the Pakistani Army the recovery of one has raised the suspicion that the Maoists could be having links with Pakistani terrorists in Kashmir, supported and funded by the Pakistani government.
In an encounter which broke out at the Tadoki Police Station limit in Murner forest range on June 14, arms and ammunition like two SLRs, one 303 rifle and the sophisticated G3 rifle were recovered.
According to DG, Naxal Operation DM Awasthi, the total number of Maoists involved in the operations is said to have been 11 and two dead bodies have already been recovered.
“We have recorded G3 rifle used by the Pakistan army and this is second such recovery in the region”, said Awasthi while talking to media persons.
Earlier in 2018, the police had recovered a similar German made rifle and the US made, sub-machine gun after an encounter with Maoists in Sukma. Foreign-made telescopic sights have also been recovered from the Naxals in the past.
Earlier we had reported how the National Investigative Agency (NIA) along with the funding of Kashmiri separatists had started focusing on the possible funding received by Naxals. As a result of a particular case dated back to August 2017, the NIA had tightened its investigation on an inter-state module involving Jharkhand and Telangana while also actively probing the Maoist trail in Telangana.
Moreover, the Pune Police while investigating the Elgaar Parishad case had also informed a special court in Pune that the activists arrested in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case were in touch with Central Committee members of the banned CPI-Maoist, and they had discussed routing funds for Maoist activities through hawala transactions.
This recovery has now led to further emphasis on the suspicion that the Maoists have not only been working in a close nexus with Kashmiri separatists and the urban Naxals but also with Pakistani forces or terror groups.