Exactly at the first light of December 15, Jigme Singhye Wangchuk, the King of Bhutan, led his Royal Bhutan Army into the dense Bhutanese jungles to flush out the insurgents from their terror training camps. The insurgent groups, namely, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), as they later claimed, were taken by surprise. Immediately or as a consequential action, the Indian troops moved in and formed a virtual wall all along the 380-km border with Bhutan to prevent the fleeing ultras from entering Indian territory.

Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan kingdom on the Eastern frontiers of India, has stood up and acted tough (in its own way) against terrorism. Today, at a time when major powers are burning midnight candles on how to counter the grave dangers of organised terror, this tiny nation-state has shown the world what it takes to be pro-active. Be it India, Pakistan, or US for that matter, all these nations have a lesson or two to learn from Bhutan. Now, what has Bhutan done that these bigger nations have (so far) failed to do?

The Government of Bhutan played its cards very well. From the last six years, Thimphu has been pursuing negotiations to evacuate the insurgent outfits that carried out armed raids against Indian Forces and civilians from the safe havens of the jungles in Bhutan. During the talks, Bhutan Government persuaded these groups to vacate their terror training camps in view of the threat it posed to the security and territorial integrity of Bhutan.

When six years of consistent efforts failed to yield any results, the National Assembly (Parliament of Bhutan) passed a Resolution, according to which the Government has to give 'one-last-chance' to the rebels to quit Bhutanese jungles and if that doesn't work, flush them out by using force. The strategy was very clear - leave on your own or we shall drive you out. The last round of talks were held in October-November, 2003, where the KLO went unrepresented while ULFA and NDFB were represented by middle-level leaders who said they were unable to leave the kingdom immediately, according to Aum Neten Zangmo, Bhutan's Foreign Secretary.

In the meeting, the ULFA said that it would be suicidal for their cause of independence of Assam to leave Bhutan while the NDFB said that even if they left their present camps, they would have to come back and establish camps in other parts of Bhutan.

And on December 13, 2003 Thimphu gave an ultimatum of 48 hours for all the insurgents to vacate Bhutan soil. Initial reactions of the surrendered cadres lead one to believe that this ultimatum was taken rather lightly or that the rebels didn't believe that Bhutan had the 'political will' to use its military might against a well-established 25-year old insurgent groups.

Though there was initial resistance by the ultras, it didn't last long. A day into the RBA operation, the ultras began fleeing their camps and as early as the third day there were reports of RBA over-running major terror training camps as also the ULFA's 'Central Headquarters' (CHQ) at Phukaptong in Samdrup Jongkhar district, the main NDFB camp in Tikri and Nganglam sub-district and the KLO camps in Samtse district.

On Day 12 of Bhutan Army's operations, ULFA called for conditional talks with India, which was rejected by New Delhi. Hundreds of ultras including top leaders have fled or surrendered to the Army. The surrendered lower-level cadres have revealed that the morale of the insurgents was very low and there was widespread disenchantment among the cadres with the top leadership. Analysts say it would be very tough for the rebel groups to recoup and start afresh.

Now, it is left to India to consolidate its position vis-à-vis its pro-active developmental activities in the Northeast, which could make the recovery of these rebels much more difficult. Thus, with prudent and far-sighted policies Government of India can soon help relegate the NE insurgency into the closed chapters of Indian history.

Can Pakistan, with all its so-called commitment towards peace, act on terror groups active on its soil?

Does Pakistan have the political will or the nerve that a small nation has so palpably demonstrated?

Does US understand what it takes "not-to-encourage" terror groups even if they are fighting your enemies?

If only, the rest of the nations learn from this small Himalayan State of Bhutan how to root out terrorism from this world and create a better place to live, at least the major powers.