SAIK TAMPAK (Manipur), May 6 : The Army is not ready to take up any Bhutan type operation along the Indo-Myanmar border to flush out insurgents. In the recent past Indian forces had teamed up with their Bhutan counterparts to flush out the United Liberation Front of Assam (ulfa) as well as some other outfits which had camps along the Indo-Bhutan border.
Similarly based on the intelligence inputs, army authorities after identifying the movements of the ultras, recently launched an unnamed flushing out operation since mid-April this year on the ground that many of the banned underground groups operating in Manipur reportedly have its base camps along the Indo-Myanmar border. But Army remained silent. Meanwhile on Wednesday replying to a question by a team of mediamen over the possibility of launching a joint Indo-Myanmar forces operation on the lines of the recent Indo-Bhutan operations, Brigadier g s malhi who is heading the massive operation and based at Chakpikarong area of Chandel district bordering Myanmar, neither denied nor give any comment on the matter.
Brig Malhi said, “No, I cannot comment on that (a joint Indo-Myanmar operation) because that is a political decision. The Army cannot take this decision. But I can tell you this much that we are here to stay till the government runs properly in this area.” “In 1999, the army was here for a long time in Chandel district to assist the state administration, and now re-deployment of the forces is on” he said.