December 29: Guwahati: Myanmar has launched a military crackdown against an Indian tribal separatist group camped in the country, with heavy fighting reported between Myanmarese troops and guerrillas, a rebel leader said Friday.

Rebels and the Myanmarese soldiers were fighting pitched battles in Hkmati district in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing Division, a spokesman for the S.S. Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) said.

“A brigade of the Myanmarese army with heavy weapons launched the assault targeting our cadres for the past three days although there have been no reports of any casualties on our side so far,” Kughalo Mulatonu, a senior NSCN-K leader told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

There was no immediate confirmation of the military offensive from Myanmar, with which India shares a 1,640-kilometre (1,000-mile) unfenced border.

Myanmar has repeatedly assured New Delhi that it will not let Indian rebels operate from its soil. The last crackdown on Indian rebel camps was last February.

Indian officials say the porous frontier allows the rebels to escape into Myanmar after attacking Indian troops.

The NSCN-K, fighting for an independent homeland for the Naga tribe in northeastern India, has at least 50 camps with a total of around 5,000 guerrilla fighters in Sagaing, according to Indian estimates.

The group has been observing a ceasefire with New Delhi since 2001, though formal peace talks are yet to start.

The rebels say they are protecting their ethnic identity and accuse New Delhi of exploiting the tea, timber and oil-rich region.

Indian intelligence officials say at least five militant groups including the NSCN-K, operating in India’s northeast, have their training camps in northern Myanmar’s thick jungles.

“The offensive by the military junta has the backing of the Indian government with most of the weapons used in the operation supplied by New Delhi,” said Mulatonu.

“All our top leaders are safe,” he said.

More than 50,000 people have been killed in violence in India’s insurgency-racked northeast since 1947.