India's strike against rebels in Myanmar: A message to terror threats

NEW DELHI: Para Commandos of the Indian Army carried out surgical operations deep inside Myanmar early Tuesday and killed several militants in two camps of northeastern rebel groups in a covert operation which declared India's new-found readiness to pre-empt terror threats, undeterred by borders.

The Myanmar government was informed hours after the commandos had mostly completed the precision strikes against the insurgent groups which have over the past couple of weeks killed around 30 Indian soldiers.

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The operation, conceived as retaliation as well as the declaration of the Modi government's intent to strike at terror threats across its borders, began at 3am but the Indian ambassador could pass on the information to Myanmar's foreign ministry only after their offices opened on Tuesday morning. The commandos safely returned to Indian territory after silencing the insurgents' guns in a 13 hour-operation in which IAF choppers and drones assisted the SF (Special Forces) soldiers. TV reports put the number of insurgents killed at 50.

Minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore told a TV channel that the hot pursuit was ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said attacks on Indians, be it in Iraq or Yemen, were unacceptable. “This is a message to neighbours who harbour terrorists," Rathore said. Announcing the success of the surgical strikes against insurgent groups by the Army in Myanmar, the government made it clear that it was not a one-off operation but symbolized its decision not to be constrained by borders and to be pre-emptive in dealing with terror threats. “While ensuring peace and tranquillity along the border and in the border states, any threat to our security , safety and national integrity will meet a firm response," the Army declared officially , a posture that is also applicable to terror groups sheltered by other neighbouring countries.


The troops were guided to two camps of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) and allied insurgent groups by intelligence which was gathered by operatives who crossed over into Myanmar a couple of days ago and returned with precise co-ordinates of the terror dens along with photographs.

Specific details of the fatalities among the insurgents were not available but sources in home and defence ministries put the toll between 20 and 50.

More than the toll, the daring raid, which saw commandos crawling hundreds of metres to raid the camps, marked the unveiling of India's new response to unconventional threats irrespective of where they come from. This was the first declared instance of the use of the doctrine of pre-emption: a principle that the US invokes to disregard constraints of national borders to nip threats.

Briefing reporters after the successful strikes on the camps at two locations across Tuensang in Nagaland and Ukhrul in Manipur, Major General Ranbir Singh made no bones of the fact that the twin operations were provoked by the killing of Indian soldiers. More importantly, he said the Army had to move in given "credible and specific" intelligence about more attacks inside India. "These attacks were to be carried out by some of the groups involved in earlier at tacks on our security personnel and their allies," said General Singh, additional director general of military operations.

"In view of the imminent threat, an immediate response was necessary," he said.
Singh dropped big enough a hint that India had acted unilaterally and that Myanmar was brought into the picture much after the commandos struck the terror camps.The official statement conspicuously refrained from stating that the operation was a joint effort with Myanmar Army and very much suggested that the neighbouring country was just informed of the action and that too well after it had begun.