SHILLONG, AUG 19: Contradicting claims of Meghalaya government and its security agency, the Border Security Forces (BSF) categorically denied nexus of the militant outfits operating in the state including Garo hills with the Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
BSF (G) DIG Sushil Kumar Singh said there are no arms smuggling taking place from across the international Indo with Bangladesh.
Speaking to reporters at the sideline of a function, Singh said, “As per our intelligence inputs, there is no nexus between the ISI and militant outfits in Meghalaya including those operating in the Garo hills region.”
Singh statement gains significance after chief minister Mukul Sangma had accused the breakaway faction of the Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC-B) for having links with the ISI to create communal tension in Meghalaya and other north eastern states by indulging in selective killings.
Sangma had said, “We cannot rule out any larger conspiracy to create problem across the region not only in Garo Hills but across the region because when an organization like ANVC(B) is indulging in selective murder killings of members belonging to one particular community and faith and that also hailing from neigbouring state (of Assam).”
On top, the Meghalaya police have also claimed that militant groups from Garo hills are being trained on the art of bomb making by the ULFA who have been trained by the ISI.
The ANVC(B), one of the two signatories of a peace agreement with the Centre and the state government, has become vocal against the chief minister following arrest 24 of its members last month on charges of killing migrant labourers from Assam.
ANVC (B) also welcomed probe by national investigative agencies of the centre with regard to the allegation that it is having link with Pakistan’s ISI.
Intelligence agency reportedly claimed involvement of the Pakistan’s ISI in several bloody communal riots in the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) of Assam that claimed hundreds of lives over the years.
Singh also denied that arms shipments for insurgent groups in the north east is coming from across Bangladesh border.
Chief minister Mukul Sangma recently had blame “unchecked” arms supply from across the international border for the spurt in insurgency in the state especially in Garo Hills region.
“Where are the guns coming from? Whose job it is to take care of the international border?,” Mukul had said without naming the BSF, which guards Meghalaya’s 443-km-long border with Bangladesh.
On the obviously made by the chief minister to the BSF and also indicating that the arms are coming from across Bangladesh, BSF IG (Meghalaya Frontier) Sudesh Kumar said, “There may be isolated incidents of arms smuggling across the Indo-Bangla border into Meghalaya, but it is not the main supply route.”
According to Kumar, the main arms route to north-eastern states including Meghalaya is traced to Dimapur and Aizawl as Chinese made arms come from Myanmar.
The arms route mentioned by the BSF was established earlier too when source of some of the major arms seizures in Garo Hills were traced to Dimapur.
Kumar, however, admitted that manning the border in Meghalaya frontier has a lot of disadvantages compared to the country’s western borders. He said, “While in the western borders our personnel can have clear vision up to miles, the visibility in Meghalaya is sometimes restricted to only a few metres due to the mountains and forests.”
Kumar also mentioned about the porous sections of the border that remained unfenced due to various reasons.- By Our Reporter
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