Intelligence agencies are looking at the possibility of a Bangladesh based radical left organisation, “Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party” (PBCP), having links with Indian Maoist organisations, in the wake of recent revelations that Maoists were working on a plan to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a “Rajiv Gandhi like incident”.
The PBCP, which is a banned left wing extremist organisation in Bangladesh, was formed in 1968, and aims to overthrow the Bangladeshi government and replace it with a Communist state. It is known for its staunch anti-India views. It is also known for carrying out assassinations and extorting money from businessmen. It has a strong presence in the towns of Khulna and Jessore in Bangladesh, that are located less than 50 km from the Petrapole border check-post in West Bengal.
This is not for the first time that the security agencies have founds links between PBCP and Indian Maoist organisations. Sources say that PBCP has been supplying arms to their Indian counterparts regularly. “The Maoists get a major chunk of their weapons via Bangladesh and Nepal and this has been going on since the last 10-15 years. This time the plan was that some of the cadre of PBCP would personally cross over to India to carry out their nefarious activities”, said an officer with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“The investigation is at an initial stage. Multiple agencies are probing the matter in different states. We have strong reasons to believe that the Indian Maoist organisation was in touch with this particular organisation based in Bangladesh not just for the supply of arms and ammunition but also for physical presence on the ground. The quantity and the quality of arms that they had sought cannot be procured from within India and hence they had reached out to like-minded organisations active in Bangladesh”, said an officer with a security agency monitoring the probe.
The plan was revealed after a letter allegedly written by Delhi based activist Rona Wilson, who has alleged links with the banned CPI-Maoist, was found on Wilson’s laptop. The letter was allegedly written by Milind Teltumbde, a top Maoist commander who carries a reward of Rs 50 lakh on his head.
The said letter was found while the Maharashtra police was investigating the January clashes in Bhima Koregaon. The letter talks about the need for Rs 8 crore to procure M-4 rifles and four lakh rounds of bullets among other things.