Army commanders to review Assam situation, visit Chinese border

By IANS

Guwahati : Top army commanders will Tuesday review the ongoing anti-insurgency operations in Assam and take stock of activities along India's unfenced border with China in Arunachal Pradesh, officials said.


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An army spokesman said Lt Gen K.S. Jamwal, who heads the Indian Army's Kolkata-based Eastern Command, will review the overall security scenario in Assam and adjoining Arunachal Pradesh with senior army commanders based in the region.

The General-Officer-Commanding of the army's Four Corps Lt Gen R.K. Chhabra, currently heading the military offensive against the ULFA in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, briefed the visiting commander in Tezpur in northern Assam Monday night.

"The GOC-in-Chief (Lt Gen Jamwal) was updated on the latest security situation in Assam," the army spokesman told IANS.

Jamwal will also hold separate meetings with Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ajai Singh in Guwahati to discuss strategies to counter a spurt in rebel attacks.

The ULFA, a rebel group fighting for an independent Assamese homeland since 1979, killed at least 11 Hindi-speaking migrant workers in the past 10 days and staged at least two dozen bomb blasts in the last two months.

The attacks came despite a massive military crackdown launched in January after the ULFA killed about 60 Hindi-speaking migrant labourers in eastern Assam.

Jamwal will Tuesday visit Tawang and Tenga in Arunachal Pradesh to review the security situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the border between India and China.

"The GOC-in-C was also briefed about the activities along the LAC before he visits the frontier," the army official said.

The visit by the army commander to the India-China border comes in the wake of claims made by an Arunachal Pradesh MP Khiren Rijuju that China had moved 20 km inside the state.

The state and the central government denied the allegations of any Chinese incursion.

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