The Indian Home Ministry is in close communication with its Burmese counterparts to initiate stern action against the underground groups. This new development emerged in the aftermath of subversive activities carried out by Northeast Indian rebel groups in the region.

Highly-placed official sources in the Indian Home Ministry informed this correspondent that the Burmese government has sought assistance from India to put pressure on the underground groups. “We are ready to provide all possible assistance to flush out the militants in the bordering areas,” the sources
added.

Asked about the nature of the assistance to be provided, the sources revealed that India has been extending help to the “Myanmar government for the last couple of years and the help would be more concrete.” During the last BJP-led government India supplied weapons to Burma as part of the
assistance programme following a request from the Burmese government. It is expected that India will provide Burma more weapons to tackle the insurgency problem.

Additionally, the Burmese junta is facing a shortage of army personnel to cope with the situation in its western frontier areas as a huge number of soldiers have been deployed to its eastern Burma-Thai border. When asked specifically about the supply of arms to Burma, the sources refused to
comment directly saying, “Help can be anything.” Commenting further, the sources said, “We have already submitted a list of rebel members and their camps in Burma and we seek full co-operation to drive them out.”
Additionally, they said that this time the Indian ministry is expecting a concrete step from their side.

When asked about the possibility of a joint army operation between Indian and Burma, they said, “It is too premature to make any comment now. But we have received a positive response from the Myanmar side.” During the last visit to the Northeast, the Indian Home Minister, Shivraj Patil,
categorically said that India is holding talks with Burma to initiate concrete steps against the underground rebels and that within a short period of time significant developments have taken place.