Northeast rebels are shifting base to Myanmar

With crackdowns on their camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, ultras of the Northeast are now shifting base to Myanmar, a top police official said on Friday.

"Overall, insurgency is on the wane due to crackdown on ultras in Bangladesh by their security forces, so different insurgent outfits are now shifting their bases to Myanmar," Pranay Sahaya, Director General of Tripura Police, told media persons in Agartala.

The issue came up at the conference of DGPs in New Delhi last month, which was addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and Home Secretary G K Pillai among others, he said.

"All the underground groups including ULFA are under extreme pressure in Bangladesh and are shifting their bases to Myanmar, taking advantage of the long porous and unfenced border which is not properly policed," Sahaya said.

Outfits like ULFA, KNLF and UNLF have already shifted their bases to Myanmar, which has a 1650-km long border with India, according to reports, he said.

The DGP said the Centre has already taken up with the Myanmar government the issue of their soil being used by insurgents from Northeast India.

The Centre has taken the initiative to fence most borders of the country and coastal security has become very important to watch the movement of terrorists, he said.

The Bangladesh Army recently destroyed three camps of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) in Khagracherri district of Bangladesh.

Sahaya said the ISI is still trying to network among the different insurgent groups of our country and funding them through agents in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Maldives.

However, he said overall insurgency has been declining.

In 2008, there were a total of 1561 insurgency-related incidents in the region. The number went down to 1296 in 2009 and upto August 15 this year it was only 464, he said, adding, a number of insurgency-related incidents took place in Assam and Manipur.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has appreciated Tripura police for containing insurgency and the State government for it's good governance, the DGP said.