Maoists are acquiring weapons through Bangladesh, Myanmar and possibly Nepal, according to home minister P Chidambaram, who nonetheless has expressed government's willingness for a dialogue with them provided they abjure violence. Naxalism remains the biggest internal security threat to India; he said and hit out at intellectuals who still try to “romanticize” the Naxalites. In a wide-ranging interview to The Indian Express, Chidambaram said the government is practical enough to understand that the Naxals would not lay down arms. He said the West Bengal government has “learnt a lesson very late” after the Lalgarh operation but he would not comment much on the West Bengal government's decision to secure the release of an abducted police official by not opposing the bail application of about 20 pro-Maoist tribals. “There is no evidence of any money flowing in from abroad to the Maoists. But there is certainly evidence of weapons being smuggled from abroad through Myanmar or Bangladesh which reach the Maoists.” To a question whether there is any Pakistan angle to it, Chidambaram said they were not sure where the weapons are originating from. “We know now that the weapons are coming through Bangladesh and Myanamr and possibly Nepal. The border is very porous. The Indo-Nepal border is a very porous border.” He said police has not found any weapons with Pakistani marking. The Maoists had looted “our own armories” and they had said that the objective of the attack on the Sankhrail police station in West Bengal was weapons and money.
