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Bhutan not to allow Indian separatists to enter its territory

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Guwahati, Aug 29, IRNA
India-Bhutan
Bhutan has assured India not to allow fleeing separatists from the northeast into entering the Himalayan kingdom following stepped up anti-insurgency operation in the region, officials Monday said.

"As per our government policies, we shall render all possible help in preventing militants from India's northeast into entering our territory and also uprooting any rebel bases although there are no camps right now inside our kingdom," Sonam Dawa, the District Magistrate of Serpang, a Bhutanese district bordering the northeastern state of Assam, told journalists.

Dawa was leading a high-level team of Bhutanese civil and army officials to Assam's western district of Kokrajhar for a security meeting to discuss reports of Assamese rebels trying to set up bases in Bhutan once again.

"We are keeping a close watch on the border area," Dawa said.

Indian intelligence officials said militants belonging to the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) were fleeing their bases in the adjoining state of Arunachal Pradesh after Indian army soldiers launched an operation over the weekend to evict the rebels.

The ULFA is one of the powerful militant groups in the northeast and is fighting for an independent Assamese homeland since 1979.

An Indian army commander said at least six ULFA rebels were killed in the offensive so far and five more arrested while trying to flee.

Some 100 ULFA rebels were believed to located in Arunachal Pradesh, police said.

"Some of the fleeing ULFA rebels from Arunachal Pradesh were moving toward the Bhutan border and probably trying to set up bases inside the kingdom once again," the intelligence official said requesting anonymity.

Bhutan in December 2003 evicted hundreds of rebels belonging to three outlawed rebel armies from Assam, including the ULFA, in a massive military offensive that lasted for nearly a month.

More than 30 well entrenched rebel camps inside Bhutan were smashed and dozens of militants killed in the operation by Bhutanese troops.

The ULFA had shifted its base to Arunachal Pradesh after the Bhutanese crackdown in 2003.

"We are going to break the militant camps and shelters and the operation would continue till we are satisfied," Arunachal Pradesh Police Chief Amod Kant told IRNA by telephone from state capital Itanagar.

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