New Delhi: In a first move of the kind, the Myanmar government reportedly handed over at least 22 militants of north-eastern armed groups to India on May 14 afternoon, thus becoming the third neighbouring country to act against the Indian frontier region’s insurgents at New Delhi’s request. 

While in December 2003, the Royal Bhutan Army had conducted an 'Operation All Clear' to flush out camps set up on its soil by north-eastern armed groups, including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) at the Indian government’s request, the Bangladesh government – between 2009 and 2015 – had handed over the top leaders of ULFA (barring Paresh Barua) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), forcing them to come to the table for peace talks.

Though Myanmarese soil has been used by north-eastern groups, mainly from Nagaland and Manipur, for a long time, this is the first time that the Myanmar military, Tatmadaw, has acted on India’s request and handed over any north-eastern insurgent.

Interestingly, the Myanmar government had also signed a memorandum of understanding on the governance of the areas contiguous to India with the NSCN-Khaplang group, even though it was then a banned insurgent group in India. 

However, from early 2019 onwards, the Myanmar government has been actively cooperating with India to crack down on northeast insurgents and take full control of those areas.

In January 2019, the Myanmarese military had conducted raids on some camps in the frontier areas and reportedly arrested 24 militants belonging to Assam and Manipur. Last May, the Hkamti district court had sentenced them to two years of imprisonment under the country’s Unlawful Association Act.

According to a report in The Irrawaddy then, the militants who were sent to jail by the court were from ULFA, People’s Liberation Army of Manipur (PLA), People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), Manipur People’s Army (MPA) and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL). 

In February last year, the military took control of the NSCN-K headquarters in the Sagaing region after the death of its supremo S.S. Khaplang, thus sending out the strongest signal that it would no longer allow its soil to be used for insurgency in India.

According to a report on News18.com on May 14, 22 of those arrested by the Myanmarese military have been handed over to India. They are said to be from the Manipuri groups; some are from NDFB (Songbhijit) and Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO). 

Quoting “an official”, the report said, “Among those deported by Myanmar are some senior and long-wanted Indian insurgent leaders such as NDFB (S) self-styled home secretary Rajen Daimary, Captain Sanatomba Ningthoujam of United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and Lt Pashuram Laishram of PREPAK (Pro).” 

 While the India government has recently signed a peace deal with the NDFB(S) group of Assam, UNLF chief Rajkumar Meghan was freed from Guwahati jail last November. 

The plane carrying the militants will first land in Imphal, hand them over to the state police, before proceeding to Assam. 

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