After the arrest of top Maoist ideologue Pallab Barbora, the security agencies have started a nation-wide hunt for a CPI (Maoist) central committee member who hails from Assam and was instrumental in preparing the road map for the entry of the red rebels in the Northeast.
Refusing to reveal the identity of hard-core Maoist leader who is said to have been holding very important portfolio in the central committee of CPI (Maoist), authoritative security sources told this newspaper that Barbora, who was remanded to National Investigation Agency custody for 10 days on Wednesday, was also coordinating the affairs of the Northeast.
Disclosing that Barbora, director of a private school in Upper Assam, was instrumental in forming the Mega Dam Resistance Forum to engineer a dissension among the masses, security sources said that he was assigned the responsibility of identifying and penetrating into the on going mass movements of the north-eastern states.
Indicating that Barbora had also roped in local struggling forces of Arunachal Pradesh and was motivating them to intensify protest against construction of proposed Mega Hydel Power Projects in Dibang Valley, security sources admitted that as a human rights activist, Barbora also worked for Ulfa. His disappointment over the split and the ideological bankruptcy resulted in outfit losing its hold.
security sources said that Barbora was on the radar of security forces for past several months.
Barbora is also suspected to have been playing the key role in sustaining the relationship of CPI (Maoist) with Peoples Liberation Army of Manipur.
The NIA has already filed a chargesheet in the court alleging nexus between Maoists and Northeast rebel groups.