India to ask Myanmar for Army operation against ULFA

New Delhi, Feb 11 (UNI) India is going to ask Myanmar to launch a Bhutan Army-type operation against ULFA and other northeastern insurgent groups taking refuge in that country.

The fresh demand will be made by Home Secretary V K Duggal during his February 13-17 visit to Yangon as a follow-up to the assurance given by Myanmar to extend full cooperation in dealing with such groups.

The assurance was given to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by his Myanmarese counterpart Gen Soe Win in the Philippine city of Cebu last month after New Delhi had conveyed its concerns over Myanmar territory being used by these outfits for anti-India activities.

''I have been assured that if we give adequate information to the Myanmar government, it will cooperate with us in these operations,'' Dr Singh had said.

According to Home Ministry sources, drug trafficking, and effective border management and fencing will also figure high on the agenda of Mr Duggal who will be leading a high-level delegation to Yangon.

Discussions on these issues assume significance in the backdrop of reports of smuggling of Chinese grenades and counterfeit Indian currency through the Myanmarese border.

The sources said Mr Duggal had already chaired a meeting of senior Home Ministry officials to review the situation along the 1,643 km rugged India-Myanmar border, particularly in the wake of violence unleashed by ULFA militants in parts of Assam.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil had himself raised these issues with his Myanmarese counterpart Maung Oo in December last year, and the progress made since then in these areas would be reviewed during Mr Duggal's visit.

The last round of talks at the Home Secretary level were held here in September during which Mr Duggal took up with his counterpart Brig Gen Phone Swe the activities of insurgent groups having camps in Myanmar.

Besides ULFA, which has its base in Sagiang division of Myanmar, other insurgent groups operating from across the border include the United Nationalist Liberation Front (UNLF) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The UNLF, through its armed wing -- the Manipur People's Army (MPA) -- is reported to have been behind Friday's ambush of a poll party in Ukhrul district bordering Myanmar that left three CRPF jawans dead and ten others injured.

UNI