India for the first time has said that the Maoists are getting arms from China, which is a "big supplier" of small weapons.
"Chinese are big smugglers... suppliers of small arms. I am sure that the Maoists also get them," Home Secretary G K Pillai said when asked if the Naxals were having links with China.
The home secretary said the government has no information that the Maoists have any links with China except getting arms. "I do not think so, except getting arms," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi.
Pillai, however, did not elaborate whether the Maoists were getting arms from Chinese arms smugglers or official agencies.
Home Minister P Chidambaram had told PTI in an interview last month that the Maoists are acquiring weapons through Bangladesh, Myanmar and possibly Nepal.
"We know now that the weapons are coming through Bangladesh and Myanmar and possibly Nepal. The Indo-Nepal border is a porous border." he had said.