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Indian rebels being starved
out of Bhutan: AFP

Security forces have shot dead four members of the United Liberation Front of Assam since Monday as they tried to sneak back into northeast India from bases in southern Bhutan.

"Small batches of ULFA militants with about 200-odd weapons have started leaving camps," said Dilip Borah, Assam's deputy inspector general of police.

"The interrogation of some arrested militants revealed that they were being forced to move because supplies of rice and other provisions were drying up."

Indian and Bhutanese troops have intensified patrols along their common border in recent months, cutting off the rebels' supply lines.

"An ULFA cadre claimed they were surviving on wild roots and herbs," Borah said.

India has been exerting pressure on Bhutan to help flush Indian rebel groups out from the jungles, where the ULFA and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland have established bases.

India estimates that more than 4,000 armed rebels are hiding out across the border, from where they carry out hit-and-run strikes against targets on the Assamese side of the border.

Tribal and separatist insurgency in Assam has claimed around 10,000 lives over a decade.

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