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                 Indian Attack on Rebels in Myanmar Drew Blank

   by Shaikh Azizur Rahman

   Days after the Indian army announced it had inflicted "significant
   casualties" on insurgents in an operation inside Myanmar, an Indian
   intelligence official said the "hot pursuit" actually failed to kill
   any of the Naga rebels it had targeted.

   Recent wireless intercepts and information collated from interviews by
   Indian intelligence operatives revealed that the rebels from National
   Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), who carried out a
   deadly ambush on Indian soldiers in the northeastern border state of
   Manipur on June 4, escaped the army operation unscathed, the official
   said.

   It took time to collect information from the remote areas and analyze
   them, the official told the Hindustan Times.

   "But it's clear (now) that the NSCN (K) insurgents remain unscathed,"
   the intelligence official said about the operation.

   Attack, counterattack

   On June 4, a group of around 30 rebels, armed with rocket-propelled
   grenades and sniper rifles, ambushed an Indian army convoy and killed
   at least 20 soldiers in Manipur.  It was the deadliest single insurgent
   attack on the Indian army in three decades, media reported.

   After the ambush, the rebels belonging to United National Liberation
   Front of West South East Asia (UNLFWSEA), an NSCN-K led umbrella body
   that claimed responsibility for the attack, reportedly fled into
   neighboring Myanmar.

   Five days after the ambush, Indian special forces commandos entered
   Myanmar's Sagaing province and launched strikes there.

   An Indian army spokesman initially said the attacks on the camps "along
   the Indo-Myanmar border" inflicted "significant casualties" on the
   rebels.

   "There were two (rebel) camps. Both camps were struck and were
   completely annihilated," said junior Information and Broadcasting
   Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, a former army colonel.

   Although Indian authorities did not say how many rebels were killed in
   the operation, Indian media quoted anonymous army sources as putting
   the figure at 18 to 38.

   Casualties denied

   But immediately after the Indian operation, the NSCN-K said that none
   of its members or any of its associates had been killed.

   Last week, rights activist Debabrata Roy Laifungbam visited the area
   where the camps are located and said he and other members of an Indian
   Red Cross Society team found no evidence of death or injury.

   "All villagers we met on the Myanmar side said that the operation by
   the Indian soldiers did not result in any casualty among the rebels,"
   he said.

   "There was not even an injury among the rebels. In fact, they were far
   away from the place where the Indian operation took place that day,
   several sources from the villages said," he told VOA.

   Ajai Sahni, executive director of New Delhi-based Institute for
   Conflict Management said, it was abundantly clear that the operation
   was nowhere near the kind of success that the Indian government sought
   to paint it as.

   "The most likely reason is that the operation was mounted, not for
   reasons of military efficacy or imperatives, but because of inordinate
   political pressures to produce `results' within an irrational and
   politically imposed time frame. The most proximate and soft target was
   attacked, possibly on unreliable intelligence," Sahni said to VOA.

   Operation `sent a message'

   But North Eastern Hill University professor Prasenjit Biswas, a Myanmar
   expert, said that although the rebels did not suffer any casualties,
   the operation sent a stern warning to them.

   "The June 9 operation has at least sent a message to the rebels that
   the Indian army is all out to take them on," he said. "The current
   effort of the Indian army at Chandel and Ukhrul districts of Manipur
   and its intelligence operations inside Sagaing are aimed at flushing
   out the militants from Myanmar."

   He added that, "Respecting Myanmar's sovereignty also remains a
   constraint on this whole attempt at flushing out non-state actors who
   operate from foreign soil."

   A senior Myanmar government official said the military operation did
   not cross over to his country's territory. He added that on its soil,
   Myanmar would not allow any activity that was detrimental to the
   interest of a neighboring country.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/indian-attack-on-rebels-in-myanmar-drew-blank/2841096.html