Manipur ambush- How the Indian army is flushing out the militants

New Delhi, June 9: The operation that the Indian army launched along the Myanmar border today was possibly one of the toughest in the region till date.

Over a 100 army personnel with aerial support combed the area extensively and inflicted severe damage on the militants who have been hiding along the Myanmar border.

It is an ongoing operation which will last a couple of weeks. It is important that the militants are forced to move out of Myanmar and seek shelter on the Indian side of the border so that they can be neutralized. A mechanism with the help of Myanmar is already in place to ensure that the militants are pushed into the Indian border, sources informed OneIndia.

Hunting the militants down:

This is an ongoing operation and will last several weeks, officials informed. The militants who have been beaten down considerably today will look to hit back and the army would need to be on high alert at all times. The border is being monitored closely and none are allowed to cross over.

Major General Randhir Singh says that the army has inputs that the militants would be planning more strikes and hence the operation to neutralize them had been launched. The militants were planning on using the same men who carried out the Manipur attack he also said.

The operation by the army is being assisted by choppers which are picking up the movements of the militants. There are several militants who are trapped along the border with this offensive being launched. Most of them will try and stay on the Myanmar side, but efforts are being made to flush them out. There is a great deal of coordination too by the intelligence bureaus of both sides.

Local support to be hit:

In addition to operations along the border, the Indian army is also looking for their local support in India. Militants enjoy a great deal of local support who have been intimating them about the movement of the security forces.

There is a massive operation launched in various parts of North East to identify and tackle the local supporters. If these local supporters are nabbed then the militants would find it extremely difficult to operate in India. While they may take shelter in Myanmar they do rely heavily on the local network for intelligence.

These militants have managed to rope in a good number of people especially along the border areas who provide them with local support. The local supporters are drawn towards these groups either for the lure of money or just because they support them ideologically. There are also a good number of persons who are forced to part with information out of fear.

Targeting the leaders:

The Indian army for now will target the foot soldiers of these outfits. The leaders never come to the forefront and prefer to hide in the jungles or in other countries. The targeting of the leaders would come up in the next phase of the operation.

While the neutralizing the foot soldiers would weaken these groups to a large extent, targeting the leaders would demoralize them further. In order to nab the top leadership, India is working out an operation which would involve intelligence sharing with various countries.

OneIndia News