Wednesday, March 1 2006 10:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: As naxalites increase there attacks on innocent tribals, CRPF Director General J K Sinha said the so-called naxal movement had been overtaken by criminal elements and had become a new way of making quick money for majority of such groups.

Naxalites operating in several eastern states have taken to land-grabbing and extortion and there are clinching evidences of such activities by them, Sinha said.

"While they have adopted the garb of left-wing politics, look at the activities they are doing. They are trying to grab resources like mining of bauxite, agricultural land and things like that," Sinha told sources in an interview.

"Security agencies battling left-wing extremists in states like Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar have found documents pertaining to receipts and payments made by naxalites," he said.

"It is so organised that they keep record of everything both payments and receipts. They have entered into such activities as their income sources have dried up," he said.

Sinha said though there are reports of stepped up ISI activities in neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh, there was no concrete evidence of linkages between the Pakistani intelligence agency and naxalites on the ground.

"The ISI would try to fish in any troubled water. But we have not found evidence of any such linkages on the ground so far," he said, adding the possibility, however, cannot be ruled out.

About tackling the naxal operations, he said the counter insurgency operations of CRPF, which has been given the charge of internal security, were at times affected because of 'haphazard' communication and intelligence sharing between the agency and various affected states.

"There is a need for setting up an intelligence cell to institutionalise information gathering. Now the whole process in being done in a haphazard manner," the CRPF chief said and noted that the agency's role essentially was to assist state Governments in fighting insurgency.

"We need to have a pro-active offensive approach in collaboration with the state intelligence as several attacks on our personnel have shown that we are operating without planning or thinking," he said.

He also favoured a two-pronged approach land reforms and empowerment of local population to deal with the spiralling naxal menace, which has claimed several lives in the last few years prompting the Centre to form a unified strategy to deal with it.

"Local issues are another key factor. The administration needs to be very, very sensitive in such cases as the naxals jump in support of any issue raised by the local population, gradually taking charge of the situation," he said.

Elaborating the modus operandi of the ultras, he said most of the explosives they use are locally made and ruled out any 'foreign hand'.

"They have enough educated brains with them," he added.