Guwahati, July 11: Nearly seven months after using military power to drive out militants of the Northeast, Bhutan is planning to wall its border with India to block a possible re-entry by the rebels. The 82nd session of Bhutan?s National Assembly this week witnessed an animated discussion on the subject, the Himalayan kingdom?s official mouthpiece, Kuensel, reported.
Representatives of several border jongkhars (districts) made a case for steps to secure the border, saying the possibility of the militants returning could not be discounted as long as the Indo-Bhutan boundary remained porous.
The discussion led to the National Assembly unanimously adopting a resolution to conduct a survey to ascertain the feasibility of building walls along stretches of the border.
Bhutan launched a military offensive, called Operation All Clear, in December to flush out militants of the Ulfa, the National Democratic Front of Boroland and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation.
Bhutan already has walls at several places along the long border with India. These were built in spite of opposition from people living in India?s border districts.
The Kuensel quoted the Samdrup Jongkhar chimi (representative) as saying in the National Assembly that though the militants had left Bhutanese soil, there was every possibility that they could come in again through the porous border. He said walls were required at Nganglam and Daifam towns.
?Construction of walls in these areas will help in safeguarding the interests of the people living in the border areas,? the leader said.
The newspaper also quoted Bhutan?s home minister Lyonpo Jigme Thinley as saying the government shared the concerns of the people and that it was planning to construct walls along several more stretches of the border, including Gelephu.
On the difficulties associated with the process, the home minister said: ?Our immediate neighbours were concerned that we were trying to stop their entrance. They not only opposed the construction of walls along the border, but also complained to their government.?
When a wall was being built at Phuentsholing, adjacent to Jaigaon town of Bengal, Indians living across the border hindered work, the newspaper said.
Aware of the repercussions of the move to construct walls, Thinley said the government wanted to be sure that construction of boundary walls would not compromise the close relationship between people on either side of the border.
The people of landlocked Bhutan, especially of the southern districts that border Assam, often travel through India. The National Assembly discussed the need to improve the country?s road network and lessen the dependence on Assam roads.