New Delhi, March 9: Anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles were on the shopping list that militant outfits from the Northeast handed to Chinese arms agents last year, a source revealed while the government admitted in Parliament today of knowledge about arms bazaars in Chinese towns.

Two outfits in particular have been found to be in touch with arms agents on procurement of missiles.

Manipur’s United National Liberation Front and Naga rebel group, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), hobnobbed with agents in Bangkok and in the arms bazaar in Yunnan, home ministry sources said.

Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, too, is an arms agent, procuring arms from the Chinese company Norinco, but is not known to be aiming for missiles.

“We found missiles and anti-tank weapons in their shopping list, although we do not think they were offered these things,” a source told The Telegraph today.

The list was provided to arms agents in Bangkok in mid-2010.

The government today conceded on the floor of Parliament that it had information about militant leaders from the region visiting China on several occasions.

Minister of state for home, Mullappally Ramachandran, even gave details of Chinese towns which are arms bazaars.

Rajya Sabha MPs Shivanand Tiwari and K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao asked in Rajya Sabha if rebels in the Northeast were “offered” surface-to-air missiles by agents working on behalf of Chinese intelligence agencies.

As a source said, they were not “offered” the arms but they did wish to have them in their arsenal along with light machine guns and grenade launchers.

“There are no specific reports to suggest that rebels in the Northeast were offered sale of surface-to-air missiles by agents who were working on behalf of Chinese intelligence agencies,” Ramachandran said in reply to the unstarred question.

It was one of these agents, a self-styled colonel from Myanmar, who is believed to have introduced Chinese spy Wang Qing to NSCN leaders.

Qing met NSCN general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah in Delhi this January.

The Telegraph reported Qing’s hush-hush deportation after questioning.

A source said the deportation was ordered from the highest echelons in the government after talks between New Delhi and Beijing.

Ramachandran’s reply implied that Chinese agents indeed have connections with militants from the Northeast.

In fact, there have been inputs to suggest visits of some rebel leaders to China on several occasions with the objective to establish rapport with Chinese authorities, to facilitate procurement of arms and ammunition from arms agents in that country, he said.

Arrested rebel leaders Anthony Shimray of the NSCN (I-M) and Rajkumar Meghen of the UNLF have apparently revealed links with arms agents across Southeast Asia.

One of the agents, a Thai restaurateur, was a face for Chinese arms giant Norinco, said a home ministry source.

Ramachandran said the armoury being acquired from China by the militant groups is being smuggled through Thailand and the Sino-Myanmar border to India’s Northeast.

Gholoshe Sema, a member of NSCN (I-M)’s “foreign base” who lives in Ruili and is married to one Rinthingla, also a Naga, is accused of facilitating meetings between NSCN (I-M) leaders with Chinese authorities.

“The acquisition of arms is facilitated by the easy availability of weapons in Sino-Myanmar border towns like Tengchong, Ruili and Yingjiang in Yunnan province,” the minister stated.

Ramachandran said today that government has voiced concern with governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh over the reported smuggling of arms through their territories.