Maoists crack cop code with walkie-talkies

Maoists in West Bengal are doing to the police what the latter are supposed to do to them. The rebels are using Chinese wireless communication sets to intercept police communications, thus, allowing them to remain a step ahead of the authorities, a report to the state police from a central intelligence organisation says.

Maoists in West Bengal are doing to the police what the latter are supposed to do to them.

HT Image

The rebels are using Chinese wireless communication sets to intercept police communications, thus, allowing them to remain a step ahead of the authorities, a report to the state police from a central intelligence organisation says.

The report says Maoists have cracked the communication codes of the security forces with the help of Chinese walkie-talkies. The investigators think the rebels have been getting the walkie-talkies – no set has been seized – from Nepal, and they are more powerful than the ones the police use.

The police claimed to have been aware that the Maoists received a consignment of walkie-talkies of a multinational brand a few months ago, but are not sure if they are of Chinese make.

The report says the Maoists are using the devices to eavesdrop on the conversations among security personnel. They are believed to have switched to walkie-talkies after the security agencies began intercepting their cell phone conversations. “And even if they have intercepted any communications, they wouldn’t have made much sense since all the important ones are in code,” said a senior police officer.

“The use of walkie-talkies has once again proved the Maoists are running a parallel administrative system. We are yet to crack their walkie-talkie codes, but we are working at it,” said another senior police officer.