Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil has accepted Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's suggestion for a pan northeast counterinsurgency strategy to deal with the increasing violence unleashed by various militant groups.
Emerging from a meeting with Gogoi and his top civil and police officials, Patil told the media at Guwahati's Borjhar airport while on his way to Dimapur in Nagaland: "We will do everything possible to help the region bring the volatile law and order situation under control as we will not allow it to happen any more. I fully agree with the Assam chief minister that a well-coordinated counter-insurgency operation across the region is needed at the moment."
Gogoi has been advocating an unified operation ever since militants of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) were driven out of their hideouts in the jungles of Southern Bhutan in the wake of 'Operation All Clear' launched by the Royal Bhutan Army in December 2003.
"The militants are now spread all over the region after their dispersal from Bhutan," Gogoi maintains.
He now wants New Delhi to take up the matter of destroying Indian militant bases in Bangladesh and Myanmar with Dhaka and Rangoon respectively. "Unless these roots are uprooted, violent incidents will continue," Gogoi says.
Terming the incidents in Assam and Nagaland as "unfortunate", Patil said, "We will take bold and strong steps to deal with the situation firmly."
More than 60 people have been killed since Saturday in violent incidents in Nagaland and Assam. Even as Patil and Gogoi were confabulating, militants of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) triggered a series of blasts across Assam.
Security officials say NDFB is trying to make its presence felt since October 3 its its 18th raising day.
Meanwhile after arriving at Dimapur, Patil visited both the blasts spots and then met the injured victims in the Dimapur Civil Hospital. Later, he held a long discussion with state's Chief Minister N Rio and his Cabinet colleagues.