Security experts believe a resurgence in militant attacks, which have rocked India’s northeast in recent months, have come about as militants work to regroup in China’s borderlands with Myanmar, and expect more to follow even as elections in Manipur and peace talks in Nagaland are held.
Naga splinter groups impatient with stalled talks as well as rebel Manipuri groups who have a stake in disrupting upcoming elections to the state assembly, are believed to be regrouping in the borderlands of China’s Yunnan province and Myanmar, taking advantage of the turmoil in the latter by using it as a transit corridor.
“There is a China angle to the resurgence of militancy. Several groups have people in China,” Maj Gen Bhabani S Das, former inspector general of Assam Rifles, said. Groups such as the United Liberation Front of Assam (I), People’s Liberation Army of Manipur and splinter factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (K) who are against peace talks, are believed to be regrouping in the border areas.