A sea route to northeast in the making
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Indian troops kill six rebels near Myanmar border
February 23, 2008: (Reuters) GUWAHATI, India, Indian troops killed six separatist rebels in a fierce gun battle near the border with Myanmar on Saturday and recovered several weapons, a military spokesman said.
The militants were identified as
members of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), fighting for the
independence of nearly two million people in the northeast Indian state of
Manipur.
Colonel L.M. Pant told Reuters a cache of automatic rifles, rocket and grenade
launchers, and pistols was recovered after the shootout close to Moreh, a
Manipur town bordering Myanmar.
The UNLF accuses New Delhi
of doing little for the economic welfare of the verdant, hilly state, and has
waged an armed struggle for almost two decades.
India's remote northeast region, ringed by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and
Bhutan and home to more than 200 tribes, has been racked by separatist
insurgencies since the country gained independence from Britain in 1947.
(Reporting by Biswajyoti Das; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Jerry Norton)