NDFB sets up camps in Chin

Jorhat, July 24: The NDFB has set up camps in the Hakha area of Chin province in western Myanmar since September 2009. This was revealed during the interrogation of four NDFB militants who were arrested last week.

The four cadres were apprehended by the Assam Rifles from Namtola along the Assam-Nagaland border on Friday night. Myanmarese currency amounting to 1,000 kyat was recovered.

The militants, who were handed over to Assam Police yesterday, were produced in court today and remanded in three-day police custody.

The four — Amar Borgayari, Neroi Daimary, Philip Ishlary and Chitraranjan Basumatary —were apprehended along with an NSCN (K) cadre, Isac Konyak, who acted as a guide during their trek from Myanmar to Assam via Nagaland. The four were about to catch a Guwahati-bound bus at Sonari, from where they intended to go to their respective homes at Bijni, Rowta and Dhubri, when they were arrested.

A police official interrogating the four said they were fresh recruits and had gone to Myanmar in March 2010 for training.

“They had completed their training and were returning home on a three-month leave after discharging their duties as helpers at the camp located in the Hakha area of Myanmar,” the official said, quoting the cadres.

The official said almost all the 93 cadres undergoing training at the camp in Myanmar were fresh recruits.

“They (the four arrested militants) have denied having any information about other NDFB camps in Myanmar. They said there was no member of any other militant outfit in the particular camp apart from the Bodo militant outfit and the 93 cadres there were mostly fresh recruits,” the official said.

This is the second time that NDFB cadres have been apprehended from Nagaland while returning from Myanmar. Fourteen NDFB cadres were arrested from state in October. These cadres were also recruits and were arrested after they entered Nagaland through Tizit inter-state checkgate on their way to training camps in Myanmar.

The Telegraph had earlier reported about the NDFB setting up its general headquarters at Myanmar sometime between late 2009 and early 2010 with the help of the Manipur-based militant outfit, Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL). Geroge Basumatary, one of the key accused in the October 30 serial blasts, is currently looking after the general headquarters.

The NDFB has been trying to set up camps in Nepal after the crackdown in Bangladesh. A six-member group, led by “lieutenant general” Onthao, had visited the country last year for a survey to set up the new hideout.