DARRANGAMELA (Indo-Bhutan border), Dec 24 ? The Royal Bhutan Army was heading towards its goal of flushing out Indian militants from their soil on the tenth day of their ?Operation All Clear?, reports PTI. After demolishing 30 camps set up by the militants in their kingdom, the troops cordoned off the area near the camps to search for the rebels who fled after they were dislodged, official sources in Bhutan told a visiting PTI correspondent.
With no leaders to give them directions, nowhere to go and hungry, the fleeing militants were desperate to surrender to either the RBA or Indian authorities, the sources said. Taken by surprise at the sudden RBA attack on their camps before the expiry of the December 31 deadline for the guerrillas to leave Bhutan on their own, several of them were attempting to sneak into India and some of them succeeding to surrender with weapons to either army or police, the sources said.
The supply line of food and other essential goods had also been cut off by Bhutan government which issued special directives for prosecuting those who provided such goods to the rebels, sources added. Meanwhile, the Indian army and police were jointly scouring the border areas along the Himalayan kingdom for militants who may have come down to give themselves up.
The army, besides sealing the frontiers, was also providing logistic support to the Bhutan government in evacuating injured RBA personnel. Sources in Bhutan said special care was being take to evacuate non-combatant women and children in the dislodged militant camps by providing them with shelter and food till the completion of the identification process.
Family identification of the ULFA, NDFB and KLO was on for sending them to India soon, the sources said. Tents had been erected to serve as refugee camps at Tamulpur along the Indo-Bhutan border to accommodate 34 family members who were expected to arrive here. Bhutan deputy head of mission in New Delhi, Thinley Penjor, told PTI in Guwahati over phone that the RBA operations against the N-E based insurgents was heading towards its goal of flushing them out from the Himalayan nation.
?The final touches are being given to flushing them (ultras) from our country. It is a matter of time before they are cleared?, Penjor said speaking on the success of the ongoing RBA operations on the tenth day today. ?As the camps were located hundreds of kilometres away from each other inside dense jungles covered by thick foliage, the area of operation is vast?, he said. The thick jungles in the kingdom were an advantage for the militants helping them to hide there.