The Hindu : National : `Bhutan will not allow ULFA to set up camps'

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Friday, Nov 24, 2006
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`Bhutan will not allow ULFA to set up camps'

Sushanta Talukdar

Delegation calls on Tarun Gogoi

Guwahati: The Royal Bhutan Government has assured the Assam Government that the Himalayan kingdom would not allow the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) or any other militant outfits to re-establish their camps or use its soil for insurgent activities.

The assurance was given by a visiting Bhutanese delegation to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi here on Thursday.

Full cooperation

Mr Gogoi told reporters that the delegation said their Government was extending full cooperation by sharing information whenever any movement or activity of insurgents inside the Himalayan kingdom was noticed.

The Chief Minister said there was no report of the ULFA re-establishing camps inside Bhutan though they may have been able to sneak inside the neighbouring country temporarily.

On Wednesday, General Officer Commanding, Four Corps of the Army, Lt. Gen. R..K. Chabra told reporters in Rangiya that on November 1, the Bhutan Government reported that some ULFA camps were being relocated in that country following an operation launched along the border in Assam's Darrang district.

The GOC said no permanent camps of the ULFA were found inside Bhutan.

He, however, did not rule out the possibility of militants having temporary hideouts there.

To visit Bhutan

The Chief Minister said he would visit Bhutan to study how the neighbouring country had achieved progress on the economic front and poised to become a country with the highest per capita income in South East Asia.

"We are also very much interested in enhancing trade and commerce relations with Bhutan," Mr Gogoi said.

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