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Assam guerillas plan bases in Bhutan, India steps up vigil on border |
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India will step up security along its unfenced border with Bhutan to prevent guerilla movement from its restive northeast region into that country, a Government official said on Sept. 27.
Ten battalions (10,000 personnel) of Frontier Guards will now man the 699-km unfenced border between the two countries instead of the existing five, said an Indian Home Ministry official.
"The number of battalions to be deployed along the Bhutan border would be increased to 12 by next year to prevent cross-border movement of militants," the official, who wished to stay anonymous, told IANS by telephone from New Delhi.
The decision to step up vigil along the Bhutan border follows intelligence inputs that guerillas from India's north-eastern State of Assam were planning to set up bases in the predominantly Buddhist nation.
"The number of border posts is also being increased from 32 to 135 to make our security presence visible in the area," the official added.
The Bhutanese military launched an eviction drive in December 2003, smashing up to 30 rebel camps, and claimed to have ousted three influential Indian militant groups from their territory.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), both from Assam, and the Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) of West Bengal were operating out of well-entrenched bases inside Bhutan to carry out their hit-and-run guerilla strikes on federal soldiers for close to a decade.
However, Bhutan maintains that no Indian rebel groups have a base in their territory.
"We need to be vigilant as Army operations are now on in Assam against the ULFA and the rebels might once again try to take shelter in Bhutan. Hence, the stepped up security," the Home Ministry official said.
India and Bhutan have also expressed concern over the growing nexus between Maoists and people lodged in camps in eastern Nepal.
"It is a confirmed fact that there is a growing nexus between Maoists and the people in the camps in eastern Nepal," Bhutan Home Secretary Dasho Penden Wangchuk said after the fourth Bhutan-India border management and security meeting held Guwahati.
"We also have information confirming radical elements from the camps in Nepal have received armed training from the Maoists," Wangchuk was quoted as saying by Bhutan's national newspaper Kuensel.
He said in the wake of a series of bomb blasts and strikes in Assam since June there was a renewed apprehension in Bhutan of the likely dangers of reprisal attacks against Bhutanese people and interests.
He reiterated that Bhutan would not allow its soil to be used for carrying out activities that were detrimental to India's security interests.
B.S. Lalli, Secretary (Border Management) in the Ministry of Home Affairs, who headed the Indian delegation, said every step was being taken to ensure that elements hostile to Bhutan were not allowed to enter the country.
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