New Delhi, April 19: The BSF may soon replace the Assam Rifles on the Myanmar border after Manipur backed the home ministry’s proposal.
Manipur — one of the northeastern states that shares a border with Myanmar — is learnt to have written to the home ministry asking for the Assam Rifles to be exclusively deployed for counter-insurgency while the BSF patrols the 1,643km border.
“We have received a communication from Manipur but other (northeastern) states also want the BSF at the border,” a government source said.
Armed with the approval of Manipur — which has a 398km border with Myanmar — the home ministry is preparing to take the proposal to the cabinet committee on security. Union home minister P. Chidambaram has long pushed for the BSF, which guards the frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
A complementary plan is to fence large tracts of the Myanmar border, starting with a stretch near Moreh in Manipur, the busiest border trading point.
But the plan to deploy the BSF has to overcome hurdles within.
The defence ministry, which has operational command of the Assam Rifles through the army, opposes the BSF move. But it may find it hard now to stick to its stand, sources said. The cabinet panel on security may be inclined to go with the views of the home ministry and Manipur, where the Congress retained power in the elections held last month, sources said.
For the past two years, the two ministries have been locked in a turf war over control of the Assam Rifles. Although the operational command is with the army, the home ministry oversees the force’s administrative matters.
After the army opposed the BSF’s deployment, the home ministry relented and asked the Assam Rifles to take charge. However, the force was understood to have asked the home ministry to improve infrastructure in the border areas before its soldiers could move in.
The army sought more personnel on the ground, after which the home ministry sanctioned 22 more battalions in addition to the existing 46. An Assam Rifles official said, however, that “status quo” had been maintained and the additional battalions had not been sent yet.
“Then, they (the army) wanted a border road but this frontier is long and hilly, so it may not be possible immediately,” a home ministry official said.
Of the present 46 battalions, 31 are meant for counter-insurgency while 15 patrol the border. Some of them are in Mizoram, which has little insurgency but a longer border of 510km.
The Myanmar border is peculiar as people of same ethnic origin live on both sides. Residents of the two countries cross the frontier at several points.
Haats (weekly markets) are common. One of them is at Namsa in Arunachal Pradesh — which has a 520km border— and is frequented by the Myanmarese.
The complex nature of the border, besides the hilly terrain, has led to management problems.
Security remains a concern, too. The factions of several militant outfits, including the NSCN (IM) and the Ulfa, have bases in Myanmar.
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