ITBP may get Indo-Myanmar border job

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry is no longer considering BSF as an option to guard the sensitive Indo-Myanmar border. ITBP or the Assam Rifles may get the job.
A top MHA official said on Saturday that BSF “is no longer on the table” and the other border-guarding force ITBP was being considered for the same.

"A top-level committee will soon submit its report on the same. The re-deployment of Assam Rifles near the border is also under consideration," the official said. Sources in the Ministry say the ITBP is being considered more suitable for the job given their experience of guarding a mountainous terrain like the Indo-China border.

Under the UPA, an in-principle decision was taken to hand over this border to the BSF but the same could not be implemented. The Assam Rifles is presently posted many kilometers inside the Indo-Myanmar border and also doubles up for counter-insurgency duties.

"The manner of the deployment of the border guarding force along the Indo-Myanmar border needs to be looked at and augmented," the top official said.

The MHA official also said that the government will soon ban the insurgent outfit NSCN (K) and it was wrong to say that the decision in the Cabinet on the same was held up due to division of opinion in the government on the same.

"The NSCN (K) itself abrogated the ceasefire on March 27. A month before that, we had even sent a letter to them asking for the ceasefire to be extended by a year but they refused. There were pointers last year also that the ceasefire could have broken in 2014. NSCN (K) is getting support from many sources for this action. We will go with an iron hard against them since they have indulged in a brazen act of violence against the Indian Army after breaking the ceasefire," the top ministry official said.

Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, had told ET in an exclusive interview last week that the NSCN (K) was getting support from Pakistan's ISI and other sources.