From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday said the insurgency situation in the state has assumed a new dimension of late with Maoists trying to strike coordination with the insurgent groups even as Pakistani-ISI is getting involved in it.
Briefing the media after a closed door meeting with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram at the Raj Bhwan here , Gogoi said, “Though the insurgency-related violence have come down in the state there is, however, no scope for getting complacent in view of news about Maoists infiltration and the ISI trying to get involved in it. The security review meeting took into consideration the need for evolving a new strategy in view of Maoists infiltrating some districts of Assam in coordination with local insurgent groups which are already being backed by Pakistani ISI.”
Chidambaram took stock of the insurgency situation and the status of peace process with various insurgent groups in Assam in the meeting with Gogoi and the Centre’s peace interlocutor and former IB chief P C Haldar.
Gogoi said the state government requested the Centre for special fund that is provided to naxal-affected state in the country to facilitate rehabilitation of surrendered militants as well as more central forces to prevent insurgents from making fresh strikes. “We now have 86 companies of central paramilitary forces and 13 more companies are coming back to the state after election duty in UP. We want at least 125 companies in total,” Gogoi said.
The meeting also focused on the N-E insurgent base in Myanmar (western part) bordering North East. “It has been a matter of concern for us that Myanmar has become a hub of insurgent groups from North East which have coordination with Kachin Independent Army (KIA) taking advantage of lack of proper control a particular region of that country. We have to revamp our counter-insurgency strategy to tackle the problem,” Gogoi said.
Chidambaram made a review of the status of peace process with various insurgent groups in Assam including ULFA (pro-talks), NDFB (progressive), both factions of Dima Halam Daogah (DHD), Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF) and discuss with Gogoi and Haldar how the government was planning to carry forward the peace processes.
Gogoi supports NCTC: Gogoi said that he was in favour of the Central government’s decision to set up the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) given the new dimension of terrorism tackling which needed not only cooperation within the country but with international community.
Regarding apprehension expressed by some of chief ministers that the NCTC would be an infringement of the federal structure of the country, Gogoi said, “I don’t believe that the Central government will do anything while tackling terrorism without consulting the concerned states.”
He pointed out that implementation of the law is important to ensure that they are not misused and added that the AFSPA is operational in Assam for more than a decade and there has been no hue and cry over it as it has been properly used.
The NCTC, to be effective from March 1, will be an agency under the IB and coordinate all counter-terror measures in the country.
The operations wing of the NCTC will be empowered to search or arrest anybody under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The proposed agency has drawn opposition from various chief ministers, including Jayalalitha, Mamata Banerjee and Manik Sarkar.
