Panery (Indo-Bhutan border) : The Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) continued to hound Indian rebels holed up in that country on the 11th day of its offensive today (Dec 25, 2003).

The RBA, which achieved major advantages over the insurgents, has fanned into the dense jungles in eastern and western flanks of Bhutan's southern territory to track out the rebels who had fled after all their camps were smashed.

Official sources from Bhutan told visiting correspondents that the areas surrounding the destroyed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), National Democratic Force of Bodoland (NDFB) and Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) camps are being cordoned off to flush out the hiding militants in the inhospitable rugged terrain of the Himalayan kingdom.

As the camps had been set up hundreds of kilometres from each other inside dense jungles, RBA was searching even the in-between areas to track out the ultras.

Meanwhile, the Army and police were receiving feelers from the fleeing militants to help them surrender as they abandoned by their leaders in the face of the RBA offensive since December 15 are desperate to save their lives, the sources in Panery said.

The 64 family members, including women and children, of the ULFA who were in the demolished camps were being sheltered at the relief camp specially set up for them at Tamulpur in Assam.

Meanwhile in Guwahati five Northeast-based separatist insurgents, including four from ULFA and one from NDFB, fleeing from Bhutan have surrendered before the police and the Army in Darrang district along with arms and ammunition.

District Superintendent of Police (SP) Izaz Hazarika told reporters in Guwahati from Mangaldoi that the four ULFA cadres trudged from their Barla Camp in Bhutan, while the other was from the NDFB first battalion, located in the Himalayan kingdom to give themselves up on Monday (Dec 29, 2004).

They laid down before the SP and G-o-C 5 Mountain Division four AK-56 rifles, one universal machine gun and 355 rounds of ammunition.

Both the police and the Army were receiving feelers from the fleeing militants for surrendering before the authorities, he added.