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North East : Indo-Myanmar joint thrust to tackle insurgency |
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India and Myanmar have decided to embark on “strategic co-ordination” to tackle “in a meaningful way” the insurgent outfits based in each other’s territories, activists of which often sneak across the border to foment trouble in the neighbour¬ing countries. An agreement to this effect was reached last month at a meeting of senior Army Commanders of the Assam Rifles and Myanmar’s 304 Infantry Battalion.
The meeting was held at a Myanmarese army cantonment at Sabawngte near Matupi town under the Chin state. It attempted to reach a consensus on sharing intelligence and building more motorable roads in the border areas of both countries. This will help them tackle incursions by militants of both countries into each other’s territories.
Sources said a contingent of the 37 Assam Rifles, led by a colonel, crossed the Indo-Myanmar border from Mizoram’s Lunglei district for this crucial conference.
It embarked on the trip after Col San Aung, the tactical commander of the 304 battalion of the Myanmarese army, extended an invitation to their sector commander at Aizawl.
Curfew imposed to check infiltration from Bangladesh
Meanwhile, the authorities in the Cachar district of Assam have clamped a nine-hour night curfew along the 32-km Indo-Bangladesh border. The curfew has been imposed for two months in a renewed bid to curb infiltration of Bangladeshis into this dis¬trict as well as to check smuggling across the border.
According to a press note released on May 31 by the district administration, the prohibitory order has banned the movement of any person between 8 pm and 5 am in a one-km radius along the border. The order also prohibits the plying of boats on the Indian side of the border of the Surma river during this span of time.
However, the boats of the fishermen having a valid license issued by the Gaon Panchayat and counter-signed by the chief executive councillor of the zilla parishad, can ply on the Surma river during these hours. The issuing of this restrictive order confirms the general feeling among the people of this South Assam district that border-hopping by both infiltrators and smugglers has been continuing with impunity.
Though a battalion of the BSF has been deployed to check Bangladeshi infiltrators, the impression among the general public has now been gathering ground that infiltrators are always able to evade arrest. A senior police official said for every infil¬trator who is arrested, at least four others evade capture, thus worsening the problem. He added that once these infiltrators gain entry across the border, many among them do not stay in this district where the second line of defence against them is in force for a long period.
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