Guwahati: Countering stiff resistance from over 3,000 heavily-armed Indian insurgents, Bhutanese Army has overrun at least six of their camps in four districts bordering Assam amid reports of 90 ultras being killed and many, including KLO (Kamtapur Liberation Organisation) chief, arrested.

Suffering reverses, ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam), whose two main camps have been overrun by the Army, today (Dec 17, 2003) urged the Bhutan Government to stop operations to flush out the insurgents.

But the Government said it undertook the operation after all attempts at a peaceful solution failed when the militants "never took any negotiation seriously".

The Indian Army, which has sealed the border with Bhutan in Assam and West Bengal, was conducting "complementary exercises" to prevent any of the fleeing ultras from entering the Indian territory, a Bhutan Government statement said.

Around 6,000 troops of Royal Bhutan Army engaged in evicting the Northeast insurgents have overrun ULFA general headquarters in Merengphu under Samdrup Jongkhar district, the main National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) camps in Tikri, Samdrup Jongkhar and Nganglam and Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) camps in Samtse, besides the ULFA central headquarters, since the operations began on Monday (Dec 15).

The pace of the operations is being hampered as the areas leading to the camps situated in strategic heights in rugged jungle terrain are heavily mined and insurgents numbering more than 3,000 were using heavy weapons, director in Bhutan's Foreign Ministry Yeshe Dorji said.

Although both sides have suffered casualties, the total number of deaths and injuries were not known at present, the Bhutanese statement said.

However, intelligence sources said 90 militants and 34 Bhutanese soldiers have been killed in the intense fighting underway to evict the separatists from 30 well-fortified camps in the Himalayan Kingdom.

PTI

Related Links
Bhutanese Army captures ULFA headquarters
Bhutan Armymen injured in anti-militant offensive