Guwahati, Dec. 25: The diplomatic mission to convince Bhutan and Bangladesh to flush out militants of the Northeast from their territories has made substantial progress, according to the Union minister in charge of the department for development of the northeastern region, Arun Shourie.
He made the statement during an informal interaction with members of the media on the runway of Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport here. “Diplomatic initiatives are on at the appropriate level and the results will be known soon,” he said.
Shourie said he had spoken to leaders of Bangladesh — during his recent visit to that country — about the concern of the northeastern states over the presence of militants from the region in neighbouring countries.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi had said earlier that it was imperative to deploy additional forces along the international borders in the Northeast. He said insurgency would not end unless the trend of militants going out of the region for training and sneaking back for attacks was brought to an end.
The headquarters of two militant outfits of Assam, the Ulfa and the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), is in Bhutan. Several more outfits have transit camps and training centres in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. Cox’s Bazar, in the same country, is the nerve-centre of the arms trade.
With India mounting pressure on Bhutan, the Himalayan kingdom recently indicated that it would launch a military offensive if insurgent outfits of the Northeast did not vacate its territory. The Ulfa and the NDFB are believed to have shifted some of their camps from Bhutan to Bangladesh and Myanmar, though their operational headquarters are still located there.
The Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), which is active in West Bengal and has an alliance with the Ulfa, is another outfit that has a presence in Bhutan.
Sources in the Union home ministry disclosed that Bhutan had agreed to allow Indian security forces to pursue militants up to a certain point within its territory.
In another development, the home ministry informed the state government that two battalions of the Special Services Bureau would be deployed on the Indo-Bhutan border, as against the requirement of four battalions. Two more battalions would be deployed in phases, the ministry said.
Of the 60 posts that are to be set up along the entire stretch of the Indo-Bhutan border, 42 will be within Assam. The expenses incurred in setting up these posts will be borne by the Centre.
Apart from Bhutan and Bangladesh, Myanmar is a haven for militant outfits of the Northeast. Outfits active in Manipur and the Khaplang faction of the NSCN have several camps in that country. The Ulfa and the NDFB, too, have set up bases there with the help of the NSCN (K). S.S. Khaplang, who heads the NSCN (K), reportedly operates from Myanmar.
The porous Indo-Bangla and Indo-Myanmar borders are the main routes for smuggling.