Assam massacre- India needs to go beyond ties with Myanmar

The incident in which over 70 tribals were brutally murdered at the hands of the NFDB(S) is still fresh in everyone’s mind. As the army intensifies its operations and India claims that it is getting support from Myanmar and Bhutan, the fact of the matter is that this operation is harder than one would have thought.

Militants hide out difficult to penetrate:

The NFDB(S) has found a safe hiding spot in the very dense forests in Myanmar’s Kachin state and the Saigang division which is bordering the North Eastern states of India. This is an area which is completely under the control of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) which has been accused of training the ULFA.

This particular area is considered to be a no man’s land and is completely out of the control of Myanmar. The country has not managed to gain control over these areas which has made it a safe haven for the NFDB (S).

Need to go beyond ties:

While the Indian government says that it is positive about the support that is getting from Myanmar, there are various other issues on hand which need to be dealt with.

How effective will the Myanmar government be when it comes to acting against terrorist groups taking shelter in Kachin state and the Saigang division.

The government has not been effective in dealing with the KIA. In order to get into these dense forests and carry out an operation the army needs the logistic support from locals which is complete absent in these areas thanks to it being controlled by the KIA.

The KIA and ULFA:

The KIA and the ULFA joined hands in the first place since they have a common agenda and that is to defy India. In fact the first batch of the ULFA was trained by the KIA and since then their ties are extremely strong.

Moreover the ULFA also managed to break the Bodo movement and helped the creation of the NFDB (S) which is an anti talks faction. The recent massacre by this group was only aimed at disrupting any sort of peace talks between the Bodos and the government.

Setting up operations in no man’s land:

The area that the ULFA and NFDB (S) have chosen to hide is considered to be no man’s land. The forests are dense and the terrain so difficult that it would need more than just military might to undertake an operation.

With the assistance of the KIA and the ULFA the NFDB (S) militants can move around the forests with ease and not get caught.

What India would need to do is seek the assistance of the KIA and if they do manage to come to the table then flushing out these militants will be a relatively easy task.