Maoists using weapons looted from cops: Chhattisgarh police chief

Raipur, July 7 - Chhattisgarh's newly appointed Director General of Police Vishwaranjan Saturday said Maoist militants in the state mostly use weapons such as AK-47 rifles that are looted from policemen.

In his first interaction with the media two days after taking over as the state's police chief, Vishwaranjan said the rebels had set up a research and development (R&D) wing sometime back to become 'self-sufficient' in weapons.

They had also started setting up units at Rourkela in Orissa and at Bhopal to manufacture a missile rocket launcher, but their plan was exposed.

Commenting on weapons and arms strength of the Maoists as compared to police forces, Vishwaranjan said only in explosives did the Maoists have an advantage. 'We (police) get trapped in their landmines, but it can be tackled by training policemen.'

Vishwaranjan, a 1973 batch IPS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre, quit the post of additional director in Intelligence Bureau (IB) early this month before taking over as the police chief of the insurgency-hit state.

Responding to a question regarding the poor intelligence networking system in the state, he said: 'Tactics and morale matter a lot more than intelligence networking.'

He said he would visit the state's Maoist-hit southern Bastar region to boost the morale of police forces who are fighting the Leftist radicals.

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