Naxals use FM to listen in on cops

Naxals use FM to listen in on cops

Ranchi: While the Jharkhand Police are going hi-tech to deal with Naxalites, the Naxals are getting even with the same technology to track their movements.

A hardcore activist of Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-M), Shayam Sinku, who was arrested in Jamshedpur last month, admitted to using FM radio to intercept the messages of security forces.

The police had been suspecting such a move by the rebels for a long time.

"High capacity radios can intercept messages. FM radio is now available in remote areas and this may be helping Naxalites to intercept the messages," a police official involved in anti-Naxal operations said.

He said, "Taking into consideration leakage of our messages, we have adopted a coding system. We keep changing our code and frequency to dodge them."

The police headquarters has also alerted Naxalite-dominated districts of Jharkhand to keep their frequencies changing and be on high alert while passing messages on wireless sets.

Besides, the Naxalites are in possession of more than a dozen wireless sets belonging to the police, which they have acquired through ambushes.

The police, however, say they use the leakage to their favour.

"Sometime we pass wrong messages to trap the Naxalites. They prepare for ambush whenever they get our information, and we use fake messages to incite them," said the police official.

He added that the police department was undergoing a makeover with modern gadgets and that new wireless sets with high frequency had been purchased.

Naxals are active in 16 of the 22 districts of Jharkhand.

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