Nagaland rebels sneak into Dima Hasao district

TIMES OF INDIA:

A group of 25-30 NSCN (IM) cadres has reportedly sneaked into southern Assam's Dima Hasao district from neighbouring Nagaland. This came to light following the arrest of two members of the militant outfit in Haflong on Wednesday night.

Acting on a tip-off, security forces raided Longme and Suratnagar villages near Haflong, the headquarters of Dima Hasao district, on Wednesday night and arrested the two self-styled senior sergeant majors of NSCN (IM) - W A Amos, alias Momo Anal (39), and Thuingalen Sira, alias Aleng (49) - a senior police officer said on Thursday. No arms or ammunitions were found on them, sources said.

During interrogation, the two militants revealed that a group of 30 NSCN(IM) cadres entered Dima Hasao from Nagaland and Manipur recently. They also confessed to the group carrying sophisticated arms and ammunition with them.

"We came to Dima Hasao not to operate or engage in subversive activities, but to make sure that after the split in the NSCN(K) recently, no new militant outfit is born out of them," the arrested cadres said during police interrogation.

Haflong police on Thursday took the duo to the local court, which sent the two to five days' police remand.

Sources said NSCN (IM) militants, who are at truce in Nagaland, have been engaging in extortion activities in Assam's Dima Hasao district after the surrender of major militant groups, including DHD (Nunisa) and DHD (Jewel). The outfit is also known for supply of arms and ammunition and providing arms training to Dima Hasao based militant outfits over the years in exchange of hefty sums of money.

Manipur and Nagaland share a long border with Dima Hasao. In the absence of any inter-state border outposts, the border has turned into a free corridor for militants. The news of fresh sneaking of the Naga militants into Assam proves that vigilance has not been stepped up along the inter-state border, sources said.

On the other hand, BSF director general Raman Srivastava is on a two-day visit to Mizoram and Cachar Frontier beginning on Thursday for taking stock of the situation along Indo-Bangladesh border. Srivastava's visit is significant because Union external affairs minister S M Krishna is currently on a three-day visit to Bangladesh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also set to visit to the neighboring country in September. The director general, who took over charge on August 1, 2009, on Thursday said the force was always willing to maintain a cordial relationship with its counterpart and people on the other side of the border.