NEW DELHI, April 8 — The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been alarmed by the trans-national linkages between the militant outfits in the North-east and the ISI of Pakistan and has held illegal inflow of arms and influx of illegal migrants into the region as having aided growth and movement of militancy.
This was the conclusion drawn up by the Union Home Secretary in his submission before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which tabled its report in the Lok Sabha here today.
The standing Committee’s report came even as the MHA said that it has directed the Assam Government to take steps to strengthen security measures at oil and gas installations and other sensitive places in the State as also to apprehended the anti-national elements behind the incidents.
The overall internal scenario in the North-east was held to be stable as the level of violence had declined, though the Union Home Secretary mentioned that the internal security situation particularly in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura needed to be handled with sensitivity and urgency. In addition, lack of economic development and employment opportunity and assistance from Pak ISI were also contributing to the growth of militancy.
The reason for the Home Secretary’s optimism was the 1312 incidents of violence, which was less than 1338 such incidents recorded in 2001. He mentioned that statistics proved that the number of extremist related incidents came down along with the decline in losses of lives of civilians as well as security personnel. On the other hand, recovery of arms increased and number of extremists killed remained the same.
Referring to the cause of latest concern, the Union Home Secretary told the parliamentary group that the Union Government was alarmed by existence of insurgent camps in neigh-bouring countries including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan.
The parliamentary committee was also told about the accords signed with the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) and the ongoing talks with NSCN(I-M) and the ceasefire pacts with various underground outfits including the Khaplang faction of NSCN, DHD, UPDS among others.
About the reimbursement of the security related expenditures, it was stated that Central Government was implementing 100 per cent Centrally funded scheme of assistance in kind for modernisation of police force in the North-east.
The MHA has sanctioned 24 India Reserve Battalions including six for Assam, two each for Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland and five for Tripura.
Referring to the problem of illegal infiltration from Bangladesh, the Home Secretary said that the Phase-I of the border fencing work along the Indo-Bangladesh border was in advance stage of completion whereas Phase-II has been targeted for completion by 2007. However, he conceded that progress of work on the Indo-Bangladesh border remained slow because of certain operational difficulties with the existing design of fencing in the low-lying areas in the West Bengal sector.