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.
