'Maoists get weapons from across the border'

Two days after Maoist guerrillas killed 76 security personnel in Chhattisgarh, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the leftist insurgents were procuring arms from "across the border".

Two days after Maoist guerrillas killed 76 security personnel in Chhattisgarh, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the leftist insurgents were procuring arms from "across the border".

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"There are bazaars across the border. You can always get arms from there. Where do you think northeast rebels are getting the arms from," Chidambaram told reporters.

"There are several places across the border where you can buy arms. You can Google check... You should visit these places if you have not," he said.

The home minister said India shared an open border with Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar through which the rebels were clandestinely smuggling weapons.

Chidambaram said the government would probe "into the lapses" that led to the worst ever attack on security forces Tuesday.

"We will launch a full probe into what went wrong, look into the lapses," he said.

He said the operations in Dantewada region where Maoists staged the bloodbath in the Chintalnar hilly area was a joint decision of state police and central paramilitary troopers.

Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai last year said that the leftist rebels were getting arms from illegal weapons markets in China, Myanmar and Bangladesh.