High alert in NE as Delhi reviews situation

Agencies & Our Staff Reporter

New Delhi/ Guwahati, June 11: New Delhi on Thursday sounded high security alert across Northeast (NE) following reports that the tiolist Socialist Council of galand-Khaplang (NSCN-K) militants have entered India for a revenge attack on the Indian Army.

Earlier, on Tuesday, the Indian Army commandos from the elite 21 Para (Special Force) Regiment crossed the border into Myanmar and in a planned operation gunned down nearly 20 militants belonging to NE insurgents groups.

The Indian Army operation in Myanmar carried out after the militant ambush in Manipur's Chandel district that killed 18 Indian soldiers and injured several others. It was the worst attack on the armed forces in 30 years.

tiol Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval reportedly cancelled his Bangladesh visit with Prime Minister rendra Modi at the last minute to oversee the intelligence agencies and the army's plan to carry out the strike on Tuesday night.

Sources said Doval, who will visit Myanmar soon, will brief the Myanmarese leadership about the circumstances leading to India taking the bold step of ordering surgical strike against militants operating from that country's soil.

There have been reports that India informed Myanmar about the Army's strike only after completion of the operation and that upset the Myanmar leadership.

However, government has been maintaining that Myanmar has been informed about the Army strike "along the border" well in advance.

Meanwhile, apprehending that insurgents may retaliate after suffering the setbacks in the operation carried out by the army reportedly inside Myanmar, Dispur has sounded a high alert in the State.

"We are closely monitoring the movement of militants. Intelligence sharing among various agencies has been re-invigorated. The NSCN(K), which suffered setbacks in the army operation on June 9, may propel its affiliate groups like NSFB(S) to retaliate," Assam commissioner & secretary (home) LS Changsan said.

She said the State was already on alert after reports confirming the formation of a joint front under the banner of United tiol Liberation Front of West South East Asia (UNLFW) in mid-April.

"The alert was sounded mainly sounded in the districts of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar and Jorhat. All police and paramilitary forces have been told to be on maximum alert now," she said.

She said all "known corridors" of the militants have been kept under heightened vigil.

In Delhi, a high-level meeting "reviewed the situation along the (India-Myanmar) border", home ministry sources told IANS.

"Both offensive and defensive measures were discussed during the meeting attended by Home Minister Rajth Singh and ministry officials," a source said.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister rendra Modi asked his ministerial colleague Jitendra Singh to go to Myanmar to take stock of the situation there.

Meanwhile, the government asked ministers and officials not to boast in public about the Indian Army's surgical strike in Myanmar that inflicted apparently heavy casualties on the militants.