"People's Warriors" Maoists Turn Drug Dealers To Raise Funds
Dated 17/4/2008
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India says cannabis cultivation and trading is a major source of funds for Maoist rebels in some parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa states.
"In their strongholds, the armed rebels collect levy from licensee cannabis cultivators who cultivate excess land over-and-above the permitted limits, protection money from narcotics traders who indulge in trafficking, and safe-passage money from narcotics smugglers," junior Interior Minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal told Parliament Thursday.
Naxalite or Naxalism is an informal name given to radical, often violent, revolutionary communist groups that were born out of the Sino-Soviet split in the Indian communist movement. Ideologically they belong to various trends of Maoism. Initially the movement had its epicentre in West Bengal.
In recent years, they have spread into less developed areas of rural central and eastern India, such as Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh through the activities of underground groups like the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
