Guwahati: Assam Police and Army are conducting a massive combing operation in forested areas and part of the historic Stillwel Road passing through the area towards Myanmar near Jagun in Tinsukia district of eastern Assam to smoke out ultras suspected to be hiding inside the forest that ranges till the border with Myanmar.
Three IEDs where recovered by security forces which used sniffers dogs to sanitise the area where two Assam Rifled jawans were killied in an ambush by miliants on Sunday.
The IEDs were later diffused by Army’s bomb disposal personnel. The ambush was carried out by suspected ULFA(I) militants in coordination with some militants from Manipur operating under the banner of CorCom.
Special Director General (Law and order) of Assam Police Kula Saikia, who is camping near the ambush site at Warabasti at Jagun said that the combing operations were being conducted in a coordinated manner by several security agencies, including Arunachal Pradesh counterparts.
He said, “We have sealed all entry and exit points to the area for militants based in neighbouring Myanmar. Sniffer dogs have been pressed into action.”
As the area is densely forested and leads right up to the Myanmar border, we are working out strategy to reach to the remotest parts,Special Director General (Law and order) of Assam Police Kula Saikia added.
A meeting of top security officials, including Saikia and the Tinsukia superintendent of police, M Mahanta , was held at the 13 Assam Rifles base in the area on Monday to work out an area-specific a counter-insurgency strategy against the ultras..
Meanwhile, a joint statement issued to the media through e-mail stated that a section of North-East insurgent groups have called for boycott of celebration of India’s Republic Day in the region.
They have called for a total shut down of the region from 9 p.m. on January 25 to 6 P.M. on January 26 next.
The statement was issued on behalf of Coordination Committee (CorCom), Manipur, United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent).