The Hindu : National : ``Militants trying to set up camps near India-Nepal border''

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Wednesday, Dec 01, 2004

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National

``Militants trying to set up camps near India-Nepal border''

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, NOV. 30. Militant outfits such as the KLO are trying to set up training camps in Jhapa close to the India-Nepal border, said the Border Security Force Inspector-General (North Bengal Frontier), Sureshkumar Dutta.

Militants had been trying to run camps in Jhapa just the way they did in Bhutan. Only a year ago, the Royal Bhutan Army flushed out the KLO militants from that country.

According to an intelligence report, Mr. Datta said the number of training camps in Nepal would be around 100. In each camp, at least 50 militants had been undergoing training along with the members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The militants were now trying to run camps independently. BSF was keeping a strict vigil on the India-Bangladesh border to resist attempts by the militants to enlist more people into such camps, Mr. Datta said.

He said that out of the 18 BSF battalions sanctioned for North Bengal, 11 were currently employed to guard the India-Bangladesh border.

The rest would join the existing force shortly.

On fencing of the 1,066 km-long India-Bangadesh border in North Bengal, Mr. Datta said that about 547 km had already been covered. Work was under way to complete fencing in 84 km.

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