Insurgency / Northeast

GUWAHATI, May 2—With Jehadi Islamic militancy on the rise across the globe, security agencies in the North East are worried about its spread in the region. With the region already embroiled in a large number of secessionist movements, there are fears that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) may fire the imagination of susceptible young minds, among the Muslims here, with “ultra-fundamentalist” propaganda.

What has caused alarm in security circles here is the steady growth in the number of madrassas in the region, particularly in the states bordering Bangladesh. Among these states...

SHILLONG, May 1 – The problem of insurgency in the north eastern region of the country is within ‘manageable’ limits of the security forces, newly appointed Director General of the Assam Rifles, Lt. Gen. Bhupinder Singh has said. “The level of insurgency is well below the threshold,” Lt. Gen. Singh, who assumed office as the new Director General of the elite para-military force at the Directorate General Assam Rifles (DGAR) Headquarters here on Friday, observed.

Lt. Gen. Singh, decorated with the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) and the Visisht Seva Medal (VSM) and a veteran of the Indian Army...

SHILLONG, May 1– Cadres of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) are hiding in the jungles of the Garo Hills in Meghalaya, Assam and Meghalaya Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ajai Singh has said. “We are aware that ULFA cadres, on the run following counter-insurgency operations in Bhutan have sneaked into the Garo Hills from Assam and have been hiding there,” Lt. Gen. Singh said during a brief interaction with the media after being sworn in as the Governor of Meghalaya at the Raj Bhavan in Shillong on Saturday.

Governor Singh would be in charge of Meghalaya for a period of one month as...

GUWAHATI, May 1 – Growing presence of terrorist outfits including the Al Qaeda in the neighbouring country Bangladesh poses a serious security threat not only to the North Eastern region of India but also to the entire country and the recent arms haul in Chittagong port has sent shock waves among the security agencies as it is believed that the arms were on their way to India. Highly placed security sources told The Assam Tribune that the arms recovered recently in Bangladesh included AK series rifles, Uzi sub machine guns, rocket propelled grenades, 1.84 crore rounds of ammunition, etc and...

NEW DELHI, April 30– India has asked for details of the recent arms seizure in Chittagong even as Bangladesh reiterated its claim about presence of wanted terrorists and criminals in the country. The five-day Border Security Force (BSF) and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) talks that started on an uneasy note yesterday saw both sides engage in claims and counter claims. While the BSF delegation denied the contention of its counterpart, Dhaka appeared reluctant to share details of the arms seizure estimated at about Rs 1,000 crore maintaining that investigations were still on, sources said.

The five...

DHAKA, April 11 – A senior leader of Bangladesh’s main Opposition Awami League has claimed the existence of Indian insurgents’ camps in his country, reports PTI. Mayor of southeastern port city of Chittagong ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury was quoted by media reports as saying yesterday that the huge cache of arms and ammunition seized on the night of April 1 were “shipped from the USA and Pakistan to arm Indian rebels camped in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).”

Bangladedsh has repeatedly denied India’s charge that Indian insurgents were sheltered in its territory. Chowdhury claimed the Indian...

VARANGTE (Mizoram), April 9 – As terrorism spreads its tentacles and fears of weapons of mass destruction falling into militant hands emerge, the Government has given the go-ahead for conversion of the country’s sole Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJW) here into a full-fledged Armed Forces College to frame tactics to deal with such threats, reports PTI.

With the conversion expected later this year, the warfare school is going in for massive expansion setting up specialised training ranges for counter terrorism encounters, jungle warfare, urban and semi-urban guerilla warfare...

NEW DELHI, April 7— The arms haul believed to be the country’s biggest so far has rattled the Government of Bangladesh so much so that it has reportedly put its airports on red alert restricting the movement of 29 persons including top leaders of ULFA, NDFB, ATTF and NLFT besides a few other militant outfits. While security agencies in the country continue to grope in the dark, reports of a confidential order by Bangladesh Government restricting movement of a few selected individual has aroused the curiosity of the intelligence agencies here. Sources revealed that the Look Out List delivered...

NEW DELHI, April 5 — Even though the country’s biggest arms haul continues to shake the Government of Bangladesh, the North East connection is yet to be confirmed. Although the needle of suspicion is pointed towards the North-east rebel groups, particularly the ULFA, sources said that they are yet to receive any word from Bangladesh Government in this regard. Intelligence reports, however, indicated that the North East was the likely destination.

Reports speculated that ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah himself was supervising the operation that went sour forcing him to flee to Bangkok...

NEW DELHI, April 2 – Security agencies here have gone into a tizzy following reports that at least 10 truckloads of sophisticated weapons were seized in Bangladesh. The huge consignment was reportedly on its way to the North-East. According to sources here, acting on a tip off, security agencies in the neighbouring country today consficated a big huge cache of AK-47 assault rifles and other small arms in a pre-dawn raid at Chittagong. The weapons carefully sealed in large wooden boxes and jute bags were in the process of being loaded in two country boats on the banks of the River Karnafuly...