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The
Indian security personnel may step up military crack down
against the armed cadres of the United Liberation Front of Asom
(ULFA) and the operation in eastern Assam (now known as Asom)
and Arunachal Pradesh bordering Myanmar (also known as Burma)
might yield preliminary result, but the absolute outcome, New
Delhi believes, can be expected only after the bases of ULFA
militants in northern Myanmar are destroyed.
Immediately
after the carnage during the first half of January that took the
lives of more than 70 migrant labours by the ULFA militants, the
government of
India
launched an intensified operation against the insurgents in
eastern Asom. The armed cadres of ULFA, which is fighting New
Delhi for an Independent Asom (out of India) since 1979 went on
killing spree that turned the districts of Dibrugarh, Tinchukia,
Dhemaji, Sivsagar, Golaghat in upper Asom as the area of
slaughtering. Most of the victims were identified as Hindi
speaking milk vendors, workers in brick kilns and daily wage
earners, who were targeted by ULFA militants at point blank
ranges in those fateful incidents.
The
Army, paramilitary forces and state police continued combing
operation in the trouble torn locality, where nearly 20,000
soldiers are being engaged to counter the ULFA militants. The
exercises even yielded outcome as security personnel arrested
seven ULFA cadres from the Mon district of Nagaland, who tried
to flee to
Myanmar
. The arrested cadres, as relevant source claimed, belong
to the 28th battalion of ULFA from whom a
radio set, a dicta-phone and mobile phone SIMs were seized.
However, no specific reports from the remote areas of Arunachal,
where operation is going on, is available, as those areas are
under jungles and without human habitation.
New
Delhi has, in the meantime, sifted its focus on Burma and
Bangladesh, as both the neighbouring countries are been blamed
for accomplishing bases of Northeastern militants including ULFA
for training and also for using as hideouts after offensives in
Indian soil.
India
and
Myanmar
share a 1,640 km long porous border, through which
the armed outfits sneak to that country and continued using
their soil to carry our offensives in Indian side. During his
visit to Asom on January 16, the Prime Minister of India
Dr Manmohan Singh reiterated the stand of
New Delhi
to deal the acts of terrorism with firm hands.
Affirming
that 'there should be no room for violence in a civil society,
and violence will not be tolerated', Dr Singh declared,
"The intensified counter-insurgency operations will
continue to create a sense of security among all people
including Hindi-speaking people." Answering to a query from
the scribes, Dr Singh confirmed that he talked to the Burmese
Prime Minister, Soe Win during their meeting at 5 th India-ASEAN
summit in
Philippines
, where his counterpart understandably agreed to cooperate with
New Delhi
to flush out Indian insurgents from the Burmese soil.
India
had already specially increased pressure on the present Burmese
junta (popularly known as State Peace and Development Council)
to launch a massive military crack down on all
Northeastern armed groups, who are taking shelter inside
northern
Myanmar
. India suggests a Bhutan like operation (December 2003) in
Myanmar also to crash the militant bases belong to ULFA, NSCN
(I-M and K factions), PLA, PREPAK, UNLF, KYKL, KCP etc, who
remained active in Northeast.
The
Defence Minister, Mr Antony, during his recent visit to Asom
declared that
New Delhi
would seek helps from
Myanmar
and
Bangladesh
to deal with the ULFA cadres operating from those countries.
Earlier the Home Ministers' level meeting between the
neighbouring countries also witnessed detailed discussions on
cross border terrorism. Indian Home minister Shivraj Patil
explained the areas of interest for
India
to his Burmese counterpart Major General Maung Oo during the
meeting during November in
New Delhi
.
To
pursue with the Burmese military rulers, the Indian Foreign
Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited
Yangon
(new capital is Naypyitaw) on January 19. The visit caps an
escalating series of discussions between
India
and
Myanmar
and seems set to lead to a substantial increase in arms sales
and other forms of military cooperation with the State Peace and
Development Council leaders, who rule today's
Myanmar
. "I asked them to help us tackling problem of insurgent
groups operating from their side of the border. They have
assured their cooperation," Mr Mukherjee informed the
reporters.
Even
the last meeting of Home ministers from both the countries also
witnessed detailed discussion on cross border terrorism.
India
and
Myanmar
share a 1,640 km long porous border, through which
the armed outfits sneak to that country and continued using their
soil to carry our offensives in Indian side. Indian Home
minister Shivraj Patil explained the areas of interest for
India
to his Myanmarese counterpart Major General Maung Oo during
the December 21 meeting in
New Delhi
.
In
fact, the year 2006 was significant for the military
relationship between
India
and
Myanmar
. During the year, three Indian Chiefs of Defence visited the
country. More to add, the President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam,
who is the supreme commander of Indian Defence, also paid visit
to the country. Earlier the SPDC chief and the Head of State,
Senior General than Shwe visited
India
in 2005. The visit of General Shwe Mann, the army chief of
Myanmar
in December last was another example of enhancing military
relationship with
India
.
During
the visit of
India
’s Air Marshal S P Tyagi to Ynagon in November last, selling
of military hardware to SPDC was highlighted. The package
reportedly included helicopters with naval surveillance aircraft
and also radar manufactured by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.
The air force chief of
India
also offered them the
India
made advanced light helicopters that would be useful for
combating insurgent groups in their country. Prior to Tyagi's
visit, the army chief of
India
, General J J Sing was in
Myanmar
capital to offer special package of training for the Burmese
forces engaged in counterinsurgency campaigns. Earlier the
Indian Navy chief, Admiral Arun Prakash also visited
Myanmar
to discuss about military enrichment of SPDC.
Meanwhile,
Asom chief minister Tarun Gogoi claimed that ULFA carried out
the killing under the direction of
Pakistan
's agency Inter Service Intelligence. "There is no doubt
about it that ULFA is working on the instructions of the ISI,"
asserted Mr Gogoi. Earlier Prime Minister Dr Singh unveiled
officially for the first time the link between ULFA and ISI.
Later the Bharatiya Janata Party chief Rajnath Singh picked up
the version to criticize the ULFA leaders as being used by ISI
to kill Hindu (Bihari) people to make space for migrants from
Bangladesh
in Asom. Even All Assam Students' Union activists echoed the
views that the carnage on migrants from Bihar and other Indian
states would only help economic migrants from
Bangladesh
to get works in the labour intensive local brick kiln
industries.
Earlier,
an opinion poll carried out by Assam Public Works, a voluntary
organization comprising family member and relatives of ULFA
cadres negated the demand of an Independent
Asom by the outfit. The opinion poll was as a signature
campaign to know whether the people of the state supported the
primary demand of ULFA. All total 25, 64,128 people (from
various districts of Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Darang,
Kamrup, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Goalpara and Dhubri) participated
in the survey, out of them 24, 49,740 rejected the sovereignty
demand by the outfit. It was disclosed in a meeting in Guwahati
in the first week of January, which also heard many speakers
castigating ULFA for their impractical design of arm struggle
that only misguiding 26 million people of Asom.
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