Arms smugglers find safe haven in northeast India
Arms smugglers find safe haven in northeast India
By Zarir Hussain
GUWAHATI, India (AFP): India's far eastern borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh have spawned flourishing markets for South Asian gun runners supplying separatist guerrilla groups.
The porous international borders of Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Manipur states are all frequented by illegal weapons syndicates, smuggling small and medium arms and ammunition to the 30-odd rebel outfits operating in the region.
"The international borders along the northeastern states have become a favorite hunting ground for smugglers to sell weapons to insurgent groups," Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga (Eds: one name) told AFP from the state capital Aizawl.
"In fact, arms bazaars along the borders have been in existence for several decades, but the volume has grown enormously in recent years."
The chief minister was himself a top guerrilla leader of the Mizo National Front (MNF) before the outfit laid down its arms in 1986 and entered the political mainstream.
Most of the weapons, which include AK-47 assault rifles, mortars, 40mm rocket launchers and revolvers, originate from Thailand and Cambodia and are distributed from the mountainous Arakan region of Myanmar.
"The arms consignments are often routed by sea through the Bay of Bengal to its destination in the Arakan forest which is across from Mizoram," Zoramthanga said.
"The weapons are generally brought from some South Asian and fareastern countries into the Arakans."
The Arakan Army, the armed wing of Myanmar's National United Party of Arakan (NUPA) which has been fighting a lengthy insurgency against the military regime in Yangon, reigns supreme in the hilly region.
"Many of the northeastern militant groups have opened up front companies in Thailand and other Southeast Asian capitals to serve as a smokescreen for their agents to seek arms deals," said a top army commander, engaged in counter-insurgency operations in Assam.
The leader of the outlawed National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), Thuingaleng Muivah, was arrested in Bangkok in January after he tried to enter Thailand with forged travel documents.
He arrived in Bangkok from Pakistan where he had reportedly struck a major arms deal.
India accuses Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) operatives of penetrating the northeastern borders to foment regional insurgency and supply the rebel groups with sophisticated weapons.
"The government has definite reports of ISI agents supplying weapons to the region's militant outfits," Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said.
"Security measures on the borders have been strengthened and several arrests made in recent months".
Most of the insurgent groups in the region possess a wide array of weapons, including hand-held rocket launchers capable of bringing down aircraft.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in violence linked to the various separatist insurgences raging in India's seven northeastern states since independence in 1947.