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India-Pakistan
Bhutan ’seizes top Indian rebels’
2003-12-21
Bhutanese troops have captured seven senior Indian rebel leaders during fierce fighting, officials in the Himalayan kingdom say. Five other leaders, including the founder of a rebel group, have died fighting the troops in southern Bhutan. More than 130 people have died since the Bhutanese army launched its first offensive against three Indian rebel groups on Monday. The rebels have for years used Bhutan as a base to strike against India.
The North Eastern states of India are crawling with literally dozens of ’rebel’ groups, although in truth, all but a handful are essentially just small ethnic gangs that recruit from the myriad of different tribes in the area. The ULFA however, has been around for decades and has thousands of members, and basically operates as the main coordinator for many of the insurgent groups in the region.
All the senior rebel leaders killed and captured in the latest fighting belonged to the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa), a Bhutanese military official told the BBC. One of the dead rebels is the founder of (Ulfa), Bhimkanta Buragohain. Among those arrested is Bening Rabha, who was in charge of the Ulfa bases in Bhutan and a top leader of the group’s military wing. Senior leaders Apruba Deka, Satish Hazarika and Ranjit Hazarika are reported to have been killed. Bhutan has rejected an offer by the rebel groups to move out of their bases if the army operation against them is halted.
Thereby presenting solid evidence they're not stoopid...
The Royal Bhutan Army has started handing over the rebels to India, the Indian army chief said. "The first batch of seven arrested militants has been handed over. The rest will follow," army chief Nirmal Chand Vij told BBC. The Red Cross Thingy is sending a team to southern Bhutan to explore the situation after reports that rebel family members were trapped in the fighting. Ulfa earlier told the BBC that it had appealed to the Red Cross to intervene to protect women and children.
... and their cute little puppies, kittens and baby ducks.
The three rebel groups involved in the fighting are Ulfa, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO). Ulfa is fighting for Assam’s independence from India while the NDFB and the KLO are fighting for separate tribal homelands. About 6,000 Bhutanese troops have destroyed almost all of the 30 rebel camps in the country during the offensive, officials say. The camps were said to have sheltered about 3,000 rebels.
These groups have been hanging around Bhutan for years, and the Bhutanese seem to have finally had enough of them, and they seem to be doing extremely well considering their army is tiny and inexperienced. There are said to be around 110 rebel camps located in Bangladesh, whose government turns a blind eye towards them, so the destruction of these 30 camps is likely to be a major, rather than a devastating defeat for the groups.
Posted by:Paul Moloney

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