Government wants Bhutan's help to tackle NDFB

GUWAHATI: In the wake of massacre of tribals in Assam by the anti-talks NDFB(S), Home Minister Rajnath Singh has requested External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to seek help from Bhutan to tackle the banned militant group.

Singh spoke to Swaraj last night and requested her for immediate consultation with the authorities in the Himalayan nation, a Home Ministry official said.

NDFB is believed to have set up a few bases in the dense forest along the Indo-Bhutan border.

Officials said that whenever security forces carry out offensives against the NDFB, the cadres of the group often sneak into the Bhutanese territory making it difficult to track them down.

In 2003-04, Bhutan had carried out a massive operation against ULFA militants and completely wiped out their bases from that country.

The ULFA leadership had to leave Bhutan after a large number of the cadres were killed by the Bhutanese Army.

On Tuesday, heavily armed militants belonging to NDFB(S) swooped down on remote Adivasi villages of three Assam districts killing 65 people including 21 women and 18 children, sparking a retaliation in which Bodo homes were torched and a police station attacked leaving three more tribals dead allegedly in police firing.

According to reports, two Bodo people were killed when the Adivasi people burnt a number of houses belonging to the community in Kokrajhar district.