Centre asks N-E states to get ready to fight insurgency, trafficking

Organised by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Intelligence Bureau with an aim to foster greater cooperation among state police forces in combatting insurgency and smuggling, the two-day conference in Agartala, Tripura, wound up on Wednesday.

The conference, which also discussed developments in Myanmar, counter-smuggling measures and means to stop illicit drug trade, assumes significance since it came in the backdrop of Tuesday’s clash between Assam Police and people from Meghalaya, leaving six  dead.

Sources said while the killings were not part of the discussions, the DGPs of Assam and Meghalaya met and discussed ways to defuse the situation. A Meghalaya Cabinet delegation is, meanwhile, expected arrive in Delhi Thursday to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and demand a probe into the incident by CBI or NIA.

Sources in state police said that after discussions, certain specific recommendations were made, which included preparing for a no-AFSPA regime in Northeast as priority. Among others, it was recommended states must encourage sharing of information between their police and central agencies in drug trafficking cases and about prominent drug traffickers.

Given recent developments in Myanmar, the need to augment presence of state administration and border guarding personnel along the international border was also suggested. The recommendations included extension of intelligence sharing mechanisms from state to district headquarters, with senior officers monitoring the whole mechanism.

States have also been asked to upgrade their forensic science labs for better investigation and prosecution, and the Centre agreed to provide necessary help on this.

“Working with mission objective of resolving all prevailing challenges in a discrete time-frame, participants deliberated on issues ranging from insurgency, capacity building of police units to meet security challenges, disrupting drug trafficking networks, impact of developments in Myanmar and security requirements of the Act East Policy of GOI,” the MHA said.

Inaugurating the conference, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha  stressed on greater coordination among Northeast states in dealing with security challenges.

In March, Centre removed AFSPA from 15 police station areas in seven districts of Nagaland; 15 police station areas in six districts of Manipur; and in Assam, withdrew it entirely from 23 districts and partially in one district.