India shares a 1,640 km long border with Myanmar. Many insurgents active in India have actual base camps in the border area where any action against them would be termed as a breach of Myanmar’s sovereignty.
The solution that India has found to deal with the insurgents is essentially a form of outsourcing.
“We cannot operate inside Myanmar. If we have to neutralize the insurgents, we will have to seek the help of Myanmar’s Army. However, Myanmar’s Army does not have adequate sources to counter these insurgents on their own. They not only need intelligence support but also materialistic support. Therefore, the weapons India is giving to Myanmar will solve India’s purpose. The assistance is not aimed at arming Myanmar to fight against another country. Myanmar has high level relations with China. It also has good relations with its eastern neighbor Thailand,” said Major General R K Arora (Retired), Chief Editor of the Indian Military Review.
Sources revealed that Myanmar’s administration has very little presence in the areas where the militants are camping and though army patrol parties are sent to those areas from time to time, the ultras manage to shift to safer places. To deal with this problem, the Myanmar Government has started constructing permanent army bases in the vulnerable areas as well as in the areas bordering India to prevent the ultras from using the territory of the neighboring country. However, sources said that the construction of permanent army bases by Myanmar would take some time.
In 2016 alone, civilian killing in Assam doubled compared to 2015. According to the South Asian Terrorism Portal, 19 civilians were killed in August alone by the NDFB-IKS group.
