Camps along border a safe haven for militants

Sources: The Hindu News

Illegal weapons are brought along the highway to their respective States

Union Home Ministry has replaced BSF personnel with Assam Rifles troopers

Illegal weapons, ammunition and explosives, purchased from international gun runners, are brought along this highway to their respective States. To counteract this underground activity, the Union Home Ministry had replaced the BSF personnel along the 325 km long Manipur-Myanmar border with the Assam Rifles troopers who are trained in counter-insurgency operations.

Many militants travelling in buses and taxis masquerading as common tourists and small-time traders have been arrested on NH-39. However, following seizures of illegal weapons the modus operandi was changed. Most outfits started hiring small-time women traders to bring illegal weapons to Imphal.

Sources said a woman bringing a hand gun from Moreh to Imphal, a distance of 109 km, is paid Rs. 5,000 in cash. On September 24 the Assam Rifles troopers had arrested two women couriers along with 10 lethod bombs, 25 Chinese hand grenades and assorted rounds of ammunition.

The traditional border trade among tribals inhabiting the villages on either side of the international border has gone on since time immemorial. But as it grew to around Rs. one crore everyday, without illegal weapons and drugs, it could no longer be ignored and both countries legalised border trade from May 12, 1995.

Many tourists and traders flock to Moreh and Namphalong, the Myamarese commercial town across the international gate, everyday.

According to intelligence sources, many militants manage to tag along with the traders. Smugglers with international connections have also been taking burlaps full of animal parts in general and horns of the world famous one-horned rhinoceros poached in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park.

These are used in manufacturing various medicines and aphrodisiacs in China. As recruits and militants realised that travelling along NH-39 by mingling with traders and tourists was no longer safe, they started trekking along the mountains, taking a detour. India and Myanmar have an unguarded porous border measuring 1,643 km.

Concerned over the easy and untrammelled movements of militants and drug cartels, New Delhi had mulled over constructing a ring road along the border and erecting an insurmountable barbed wire fencing along the international border.

Intelligence agencies feel that for militants in the northeast, the no man’s land along the India-Myanmar border has become very vital and strategic. Following pressure from India , Bangladesh assured New Delhi that the militant camps — 159 of them according to Indian intelligence agencies — would be uprooted and new ones would not be allowed to come up.

Bangladesh’s sincerity was shown by the arrest and imprisonment of Anup Chetia, a ranking leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam, who was found in that country without travel documents.

Realising that it was no longer safe to go and come back through such a long distance to Bangladesh, skirting numerous police stations and security camps, some major proscribed underground organisations opened training camps in the Manipur mountains .

All these years, the Army and other security forces have been clearing the mountains of the militants and it was announced that civil administration had been restored in some interior mountain townships.

Intelligence sources also say that as it was no longer safe to travel through the Tripura border in view of the hostile villagers there, the militants started using the border with Meghalaya to go to the Bangladesh camps.

They are believed to be crossing the international border from near Shillong even carrying money for food, clothes, medicare for the camp inmates and purchasing illegal weapons from the international gun runners.

Every now and then, militants waiting to cross the international border have been arrested from hotels, private lodges and private student hostels in Shillong. From their statements it was established that now the militants use Meghalaya as the exit point and are avoiding Tripura.

Intelligence agencies, the Army and the Assam Rifles feel that after avoiding NH-39 the militants, particularly those in Manipur, trudge through the inaccessible and inhospitable mountains to go to their camps into no man’s land.

The Army and the Assam Rifles have been intercepting persons moving around carrying substantial quantities of rice and other food items on the assumption that these are meant for the travelling militants. According to an Army analysis, the availability of foreign sanctuaries is a major ingredient of the burgeoning armed movement in the region.

Top officials engaged in counter insurgency operations feel that many battles against the militancy will be won if the militants are deprived of their foreign sanctuaries.

While Bangladesh has assured India that militants will be driven out, the response from the military rulers of Myanmar is somewhat disappointing.

Shortly after the attack on the World Trade Centre, some hideouts of militants were raided. Altogether 198 top-ranking militant leaders were caught in the dragnet.

The Union Home Ministry sources had said that it was suggested through the diplomatic channel that the Indian intelligence officials be allowed to be present during interrogation of these leaders. The suggestion was turned down. About one month later, reports appeared to the effect that all of them had been set free.