By Aafaque Hussain
SHILLONG: Though Bangladeshi authorities are taking all possible steps to neutralize the Northeast insurgent groups, nine insurgent groups are still operating from the neighbouring country from 51 camps.
The Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) has three camps while the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) has one camp there.
A senior BSF official told The Shillong Times on Saturday that as per the list submitted to its counterpart recently, Tripura-based National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) has highest number of 23 camps followed by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur, which has as many as 7 camps from the soil of the bordering country.
Once most dreaded insurgent outfit of Assam, United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has three camps in Bangladesh, while another Assam-based group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) still has five active camps, an official record said.
According to the list, the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) have camps numbering 4,3 and 2 respectively.
It is learnt that most of the insurgent outfits are active in Chittagong, Rangamati, Bandarban and nearby areas of Bangladesh.
Besides the names, the BSF also submitted locations of the camps during the border coordination meeting between the BSF and the BGB held at Sylhet from November 5 to 8.
During the meeting, the BSF had also raised the security related problems which India can face due to the presence of insurgent groups like GNLA, HNLC, NDFB, NLFT in Bangladesh territory.
A BSF official said that the Bangladeshi authorities are trying their best to flush out the militants operating from its soil.
Reacting to a query, the official said that some of the militant camps are only for namesake since cadres of several outfits are living a normal life with their families.
According to the official, though the Bangladeshi authorities are willing to flush out the insurgents, they face various logistical and geographical difficulties as most of the camps are located deep inside forest.
