Agartala: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh would meet chief ministers of eight northeastern states in Guwahati on July 11 to discuss and finalise strategies to deal with terror and border management, officials said here Thursday.
“Rajnath Singh and his deputy Kiren Rijiju would meet the chief ministers of eight northeastern states in Guwahati on Saturday,” a senior Tripura home department official said.
He said that during the meeting on Saturday, “terrorism, border management, natural disaster and climate change would be discussed and some concrete strategies to deal with these issues would be finalised”.
Top officials of home ministry, border management department, intelligence, the Border Security Force (BSF), Assam Rifles and state governments would attend the day-long meet.
Recent spurt of terrorist activities in northeast India forced the union home ministry and the army to take some stern measures against the outlawed outfits.
The Naga militant outfit National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang faction) (NSCN-K), which walked out of a ceasefire agreement with the union government in March, has been involved in a series of attacks in tandem with some other militant groups in northeast India.
In a worst ever terrorist strike, army trucks were attacked with guns and grenades by suspected terrorists of NSCN-(K), killing 18 soldiers and injuring 15 others in Manipur’s Chandel district on June 4.
The National Investigation Agency is probing the June 4 ambush.
Before the June 4 attack, various terrorist outfits killed around 20 security personnel and civilians in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Mizoram.
Manipur, which shares 398 km border with Myanmar, has about 40 militant outfits.
In view of the significant taming of terrorism in the Left-ruled Tripura, the state government on May 27 withdrew the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which gives sweeping powers and judicial immunity to security forces in conflict-hit areas. The law was enforced in the state 18 years ago to curb terrorism.
The army carried out an operation on the Indo-Myanmar border and killed some terrorists involved in the June 4 ambush of the Dogra Regiment soldiers.
Porous and mountainous borders of northeastern states have become advantageous for terror groups.