Security measures have been beefed up in Manipur along the 396 km long border with Myanmar following attacks on Assam Rifles personnel. The latest attack took place on Monday in Ukhrul district. There was no casualty among the personnel. In the recent past, several Assam Rifles personnel and villagers were killed and wounded in such attacks activated by remote controlled devices.
Assam Rifles personnel who are well trained in counter insurgency operations had replaced the Border Security Force personnel along Manipur Myanmar border. It is a fact that militant groups of the North Eastern states have their training camps and administrative offices in some parts of Western Myanmar and no man's land. Since most portions of the porous border are unmanned the militants can and do sneak into Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh to create law and order problems and then rush back to their camps beyond the reach of the Indian security forces.
One of the reasons the government is constructing the insurmountable border fence at Moreh, the border town of Manipur is check unfettered movement of the militants. It is established that the militants and their recruits including child soldiers cross the town where there is legalised border trade by masquerading as common traders and tourists. Although there is a hue and cry against the construction of the fence deep inside Manipur the Border Roads Organisation is continuing the works.
The Union government has refused to redeploy the BSF personnel along the border. For a long time the Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has been demanding the redeployment of BSF. The Union government leaders perhaps feel that since the Assam Rifles personnel are better trained in counter insurgency operations they should remain to man the sensitive border.
For years most of the major outfits in Manipur had opened their general headquarters at Sajik Tampak in Chandel district. The militants who are ensconced in the strategically located camp could see approaching personnel. In one such instance, one BSF officer and two personnel were killed when an attack was launched by the BSF at Sajik Tampak. Eventually, a major offensive was launched and the militants fled to the no man's land through the international border. An army headquarters was opened there later.
Apart from intensifying patrols along the border the Assam Rifles personnel are checking all vehicles along highway 2. There have been reprts of arresting insurgents and recovering guns and explosives from the vehicles. Big movements of the armed mlitants are suspected in the mountains in these border districts. As a result there had been some ambushes here and there against the security personnel. Sources said that as a result of the beefed up security measures movements of the militants have been curtailed considerably.
