Won't let insurgents use territory, Myanmar assures India

New Delhi, July 24: Myanmar has assured New Delhi that it will not allow use of its territory for activities inimical to India, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha in connection with the June 4 ambush on an army convoy in Chandel district of Manipur in the northeast that claimed lives of 18 troopers and the subsequent retaliatory attack by the Indian forces Myanmar, Parrikar said the issue of presence of Indian insurgent groups in Myanmar is regularly taken up with that country's government. "The issue was again taken up with the government of Myanmar, including at the highest level, in June 2015. The government of Myanmar has reiterated its assurance that its territory would not be allowed to be used for activities inimical to India," the minister stated. "Efforts have been made for seamless interface amongst all intelligence agencies and units conducting counter-terrorism operations so as to collate, alyse and dissemite intelligence in a timely manner." According to Parrikar, surgical intelligence-based operations were carried out along the India-Myanmar border to c ounter planned attacks by terrorists and "significant casualties" were inflicted on them.