3 militant incidents across border in last six months helped get neighbour on board
India has been sharing evidence and information about locations of various insurgent groups with Myanmar on a regular basis.
On Monday, three NSCN-K cadres from one of these camps were shot dead when they were trying to cross into India.
Written by Vijaita Singh | New Delhi | Published on:June 11, 2015 5:19 am
The suspected role of Northeast insurgent groups in at least three incidents in Myanmar, including an attack on a police post, was what prompted the neighbouring country to agree to Tuesday’s ‘surgical strike’ inside its territory by the Indian Army, sources said.
These incidents, all within the last six months, included the attack on the police post by a rocket-propelled grenade launcher (RPG), an IED blast on a bridge that India had constructed and the circulation of pamphlets against the Myanmar Army, they added.
While Myanmar blamed Kuki rebel groups for these incidents, India informed them that it was the work of Manipur’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
A senior official said there were insurgent camps running in Myanmar, within 20-25 km of the border. On Monday, three NSCN-K cadres from one of these camps were shot dead when they were trying to cross into India, sources said.
India has been sharing evidence and information about locations of various insurgent groups with Myanmar on a regular basis, most recently in April, when it handed over phone intercepts of two Chinese PLA officials with S S Khaplang, the leader of NSCN-K, who is a resident of Myanmar.
Khaplang’s group is alleged to have been behind the killing of 18 soldiers of the 6 Dogra Regiment in Chandel district of Manipur on June 4.
Sources said Tuesday’s cross-border operation was finalised hours after the Manipur attack, during a meeting chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, NSA Ajit Doval and Army chief Dalbir Singh.
Initially, it was suggested that the attack should be carried out within 24 hours. But when the Army chief expressed his inability to initiate a strike at such short notice, it was decided to push the raid to Monday.
Finally, the sources said, the strike was marked for early Tuesday morning after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed about all aspects of the operation and his approval obtained following his arrival from Bangladesh on Sunday night.
Sources added that the option of an air strike was initially discussed but then ruled out since it was felt that the collateral damage may be too high.
After strike against northeast militants, NSA Doval will visit Myanmar to ramp up war on rebels
- Shishir Gupta, Hindustan Times, New Delhi |
- Updated: Jun 11, 2015 09:44 IST
Weapons of the Indian army personnel who were killed by militants lie at the scene of an attack on a military convoy in Manipur’s Chandel district. (AFP PHOTO)
National security adviser Ajit Doval will travel to Yangon this week to offer intelligence and hardware cooperation to the Thein Sein government in its fight against insurgent groups operating in Myanmar.
Doval is going to Myanmar at the invitation of Major General (Retd) Aung Min, minister in President Thein Sein’s office, top government sources told Hindustan Times. The government’s move to send Doval comes a day after India conducted a surgical strike on two camps of Naga and Manipuri militants in Myanmar, inflicting “significant casualties”, an operation Yangon on Wednesday insisted as having been confined to the Indian side of the border.
Top government officials told HT that Aung Min recently wrote to Doval seeking cooperation in fighting insurgents operating against India as well as Myanmar.
“The dates of NSA Doval’s visit will be finalised shortly. The NSA will not only offer intelligence support to the Yangon government in fighting insurgents but also raise concerns over anti-India insurgent groups based in Myanmar. As Myanmar army has limited capability to take on these groups, the NSA will carry satellite imagery as well as communication intercepts of anti-India insurgent camps to help the Myanmar government take action against the militants,” said a senior official. Foreign secretary S Jaishankar also raised Indian concerns over insurgent groups during his visit to Yangon last month.
That Myanmar is concerned over increased activity of anti-India groups is evident from the fact that they informed New Delhi about the hospitalisation of Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) chief SS Khaplang in an army hospital in Yangon in April. In fact, on June 7 a senior minister of the Myanmar government went to meet Khaplang to ask him about the involvement of his group in the June 4 ambush in Manipur. Khaplang, a Hemi Naga, is a Myanmar national and is undergoing treatment for kidney-related ailments.
Khaplang abrogated a longstanding ceasefire with India on March 27. After the abrogation, Khaplang was appointed chairman of the United National Liberation Front of Western South East Asia — a conglomerate of NSCN(K), United Liberation Front of Assam (Paresh Barua), Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction). Intelligence reports indicate that Barua and Songbijit have been seen near the Taga camps across Arunachal Pradesh in Myanmar.
While reports indicate that two camps of NSCN (K) and a camp with Meitei militants from the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA), Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and Kanglei Yawol Kanba Lup (KYKL) cadre camp were annihilated in the Indian Army strike on Tuesday morning, intelligence has identified Starson from Chandel district as the NSCN (K) commander behind the Chandel ambush. The insurgent group has about 2,000 fighters led by a Naga commander identified as Nikki Soim. Before the Chandel ambush, NSCN (K) rebels had hit Indian security forces in Kohima and Mon districts of Nagaland, apart from three other foiled attempts.
National security officials are looking at the recent upswing in militancy in the northeast as part of a larger plan to open a third front against India with the tacit support of Pakistani and Chinese intelligence agencies. Even though China vehemently denies having anything to do with insurgent groups in the northeast, it is common knowledge that Paresh Barua frequents Ruili in Yunan province and has been sighted as far as Kunming. Indian insurgent groups based in Myanmar mostly use Chinese-manufactured small arms.
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nsa-doval-to-visit-myanmar-soon-to-discuss-further-joint-action-against-insurgents/article1-1357175.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENA7MS6MAEQ Published on Jun 10, 2015
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Everything You Wanted To Know About Indian Army's Operation In Myanmar
From ‘insertion’ to ‘kill’ and ‘out’: How India’s elite troopers avenged militant strike in Manipur
- Sanjib Kr Baruah and Rahul Singh, Hindustan Times, New Delhi |
- Updated: Jun 10, 2015 10:31 IST
This Mi-35 chopper was one of five flying in the direction of the Manipur-Myanmar border near Haflong on June 6. (Biju Boro/HT Photo)
Thirty minutes, from ‘insertion’ to ‘kill’ to ‘out’. Forty of India’s toughest fighting men, commandos from the elite 21 Para (Special Force) Regiment, in two teams. Russian-made Mi-35 attack helicopters of the Indian Air Force. Two rebel camps, four km deep in Myanmar, and more than 20 militants. All destroyed with surgical precision and extreme prejudice.
Indian paratroopers conducted cross-border strikes on two insurgent camps in Myanmar early on Tuesday, inflicting "significant casualties" five days after 18 soldiers were killed in Manipur in the worst attack on security forces in 30 years.
Tuesday’s operation wasn’t just about revenge or hot pursuit; the strikes were pre-emptive. "In the course of the last few days, credible and specific intelligence was received about further attacks that were being planned within our territory," a statement released by the army said.
Releasing details of the operation, the army said it had inflicted "significant casualties" but didn’t give a precise number. Sources said at 22 militants were killed in the twin strikes on camps located well within Myanmar territory.
A similar number were said to be injured, and the others were scattered by the ferocity of the attack that involved use of the machine guns mounted on the Mi-35s. These guns fire the heavy and incredibly powerful 12.7 mm round at the mind-boggling rate of about 4,000 rounds a minute, what is referred to as ‘hosepipe’ in army slang. Little survives such firepower, and in Myanmar early on Tuesday, little did.
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The rare cross-border strike was supervised at the highest levels, HT has learnt. National security adviser AK Doval and defence minister Manohar Parrikar monitored the operation that began at 3 am Tuesday. “Myanmar was informed about the plans but the strikes at two locations were conducted by our army,’’ an official said.
Doval, who dropped out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s weekend tour of Bangladesh at the last minute, Parrikar and army chief Gen Dalbir Singh, who put off a visit of the UK following the Manipur ambush, coordinated the operation.
Intelligence reports and satellite images of insurgent camps were shared with Myanmar. “One attack took place opposite Chassad in Manipur’s Ukhrul district, the other, opposite to Noklak in Nagaland’s Tuensang district,” home ministry sources said on condition of anonymity.
An "immediate response was necessary" to counter the assault being planned by "groups involved in earlier attacks on our security personnel", the army said. The statement, however, didn’t say if the "significant casualties" included those responsible for the June 4 Manipur attack.
The camp close to Manipur was known to be a Peoples Liberation Army, a Meitei outfit, base, sources said. Members of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) and other Meitei insurgent groups also camped there. Meitei are the majority ethnic group in Manipur, where several insurgent outfits continue to oppose the state’s union with India.
The camp close to Noklak was a Khaplang base, sources said. “It is suspected that top leaders of the Khaplang faction including Starson Lamkang (the self-styled finance minister, or ‘kilonser’) may have been at the camp,” sources said. Lamkang is believed to be involved in the June 4 ambush that was claimed by the NSCN (K). The outfit had in March ended the ceasefire with the Indian government.
Indicating that more strikes could be coming, the army’s statement said they were in touch with the authorities in the neighbouring country.
Read:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/several-terrorists-killed-on-india-myanmar-border-army/article1-1356716.aspx