What is common to Maoists in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, insurgent groups and village volunteer guards in Manipur, even Myanmar’s anti-military forces?

The answer is Baofeng walkie talkie sets, that’s what.

Made by China’s Fujian Baofeng Electronics Co., huge numbers of these walkie talkie sets have been seized wherever there is insurgency. They are inexpensive, hardy, easy to use, and have a range of 5 km, which can be extended to 10 with an easy hack.

On June 22, deep in the jungles of Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district when a joint team of CRPF and Chhattisgarh police recovered a cache of fake currency notes, ink and printers, it also found eight Baofeng walkie talkie sets. Hours later the same day, in Manipur’s Kakching area, acting on a tip-off about a hidden arms dump in the jungle, the forces dug a specific area in the jungle and recovered two Baofeng set along with 37 hand grenades.

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A senior security officer in Manipur, who asked not to be named, said security forces have recovered over 100 such walkie talkie sets in the past year. “ The number is easily in hundreds. Insurgents and even village volunteers are using this set to communicate in the jungles. Throughout the ethnic clashes, which started in May last year, we have recovered Baofeng walkie talkies. Sometime in June-July last year, the state government banned their sale. Walkie talkies are no longer sold openly but people manage to get it from nearby states such as Mizoram, Assam, Nagaland, or online.”

Available for prices ranging from ₹1800- ₹16000 online, Indian forces have even intercepted shipments of the sets being smuggled out by Myanmar’s anti-military rebel forces . On May 18, an Assam Rifles team arrested a member of the Myanmar’s rebel force, Chinland Defence Force (CDF) who was transporting 14 Baofeng devices across the border to Myanmar.

“Our probe in different cases have revealed that the walkie talkies can be used to communicate within 5 km. This efficacy of the device is reduced if there is a hill or a barrier in between. But people have found ways to connect their devices at a specific frequency to increase its efficacy. We have seen that when three such devices are connected at one frequency, the distance can be increased to almost 10 km,” the security officer posted in Manipur said, adding that while the army’s Signal Intelligence Unit has the resources to monitor these conversations ,state police forces are not equipped to do so.

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According to Mizoram police, from January 1 till May 30, they recovered 314 Baofeng sets and 10 other walkie talkie sets.

Lieutenant general, Konsam Himalaya Singh(retired), a Manipur resident, who served in leadership roles in the army, and headed the 27 Rajput in Siachen glacier during this service, said, “We had seen this trend in Jammu and Kashmir more than a decade ago. But the army could track the communication. The terrorists there then graduated to using Thuraya satellite handsets. During my time, we recovered a lot of walkie talkies and later Thuraya sets. With no cell network in the jungle areas, communication for insurgent groups is important so they are using walkie talkie sets. They use the frequency band which is available for public use. The sets that they use will have less than 10 channels and are of low quality but it serves their purpose. These are Chinese companies. There is a Chinese footprint here.”

With no electricity in the jungles, insurgents use solar panels to recharge their sets. “We have also recovered solar panels. In the recent case of the fake currency seizure, the Naxals were using solar panels to use charge the handsets as well as the printers,” said Kiran G Chavan, Sukma district’s superintendent of police.