Pressure on Indian militants in Bangladesh to brings peace in northeast

Agartala, Oct 12 (ANI): Pranay Sahaya, the newly appointed special director general of the Border Security Forces (BSF), has said that peace in the northeastern region depends on political dispensation in Bangladesh.

Addressing a press conference here yesterday, Sahaya gave the credit to the counter-insurgency efforts by the security forces and also appreciated the efforts by the Bangladesh government.

"It was I guess the paper of 2005, which showed the figure as 45, but in today's date, they are just 18 camps, five of ATTF, 12 of NLFT (both outlawed militant groups of Tripura). You can well understand that pressure has been mounted not only by this police but also by the Bangladesh government," he said.

He further said that the camps of the outlawed outfits of the northeast, which were once within close proximity of the India-Bangladesh border, are now being shifted deep inside Bangladesh and slowly becoming inoperative.

"But then one thing is for sure that about two-and-a-half years back, the camps were very close to India, within three to four kilometres. Now each of these camps has gone back ten to twelve kilometres (inside Bangladesh). The fear both from Bangladesh and India on these camps is there," he added.

Sahaya also said that manning India's eastern borders is tougher than the western part of the international border due to several factors like tough terrain and low visibility.

'India's western part of the international borders are largely plains, better fenced and well guarded while eastern region of the boundaries are both plains and mountainous besides not being fully fenced,' he added.

He said the distance between two BOPs (border outposts) on the western border is lesser than in the eastern part of the borders.

'I will study the international borders carefully before taking suitable plans to further strengthen vigil along the eastern Indian border,' he added. (ANI)