Naxals forcibly recruiting kids: Indian Home Minister

(October 21, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Intelligence inputs have indicated forced recruitment of children by Naxals in areas of south Chhattisgarh, the Home Ministry said yesterday (October 20).

Naxalities are also exhorting the villagers to provide five boys/girls per village for recruitment in their armed squad. “This information reveals the real face of Naxals, who not only kill children but also put them in great danger by recruiting them in their armed squads to carry out their violent activities,’’ the ministry added.

Meanwhile, Home Minister P Chidambaram has said Naxalism could not be bracketed with terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and insurgency in the north-east and suggested that Maoists needed to be treated differently.

Chidambaram also said Naxals should shun the path of violence and come forward for talks with the government.

The minister is understood to have made these remarks at the Army Commanders’ conference, which got underway today.

According to officials who attended the meeting, Chidambaram said that while north-east insurgents and terrorists in J&K were demanding secession from India, Naxals were different because they did not have this design.

-Sri Lanka Guardian