Army’s clinical operation in N-E

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, June 11, 2015, DHNS: Airdropped by Air Force’s Dhruv choppers, a crack team of Indian Army commandos struck at two camps of militants inside Myanmar two hours before dawn, inflicting “significant casualties” on North-East insurgents blamed for last week’s attack on an Army convoy.

The twin strikes that signalled a new approach in pursueing terrorists beyond India’s borders came after intensive planning that began soon after the massacre of 18 Army personnel of 6 Dogra Regiment in Manipur’s Chandel on June 4.

At least 38 insurgents were killed in the two camps targeted by 70 commandos of 21 Para, who were armed with Israeli made Tavor guns, rocket launchers, night vision goggles and other sophisticated weapons. The team finished the “job” in 40 minutes flat while they stayed in the camps for another 10-12 hours for “mopping up” the area.

Trained to go even without food for two-three days, the commandos trekked five km in thick jungles to reach the two target camps each of which housed about 150 insurgents. At about 3 am, the commandos shot the first bullet, taking the insurgents by surprise. With no time to respond, some insurgents fled from the camp as the commandos dominated the battle. Sources said the casualty on the insurgent side could be more than 50 and may go up to 100.

The commandos had split into two teams after they touched the ground to take on the camps run by NSCN (Khaplang) and KYKL. “Each team was again split into two sub groups. While one indulged in direct fight, the other formed an outer ring to ensure that none escaped,” an official said, adding that the commandos used rocket launchers during the gun battle and one of the camps was set on fire. Sources said thermal imagery was used to track the operation.

As the operation was in progress, Air Force’s Mi-17 helicopters were put on standby to evacuate commandos in case of an emergency. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles of the Air Force also kept up the surveillance.

As the strikes gave a fresh impetus to the country’s security strategy in tackling insurgents, the government is further trying to consolidate the gains from the operations by sending National Security Advisor Ajit Doval along with senior military officials to Myanmar to cement cooperation between forces of both the sides. Doval, a former Intelligence Bureau chief, is expected to convince Myanmarese authorities about the need for further cooperation in easing out insurgents holed up in their territory. Earlier in April-May 1995, a joint “Operation Golden Bird” was launched during which about 40 militants were killed.

The decision of carrying out surgical strikes inside Myanmar was taken in a meeting held by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, his Defence counterpart Manohar Parrikar, Doval and Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh among others soon after the Chandel attack. While Doval decided to stay back rather than accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Bangladesh visit, Gen Singh postponed his UK trip to oversee the operations.

The initial decision was to carry out the attack on June 5 but Gen Singh expressed inability to carry out the strike at such a short notice.

Then Doval and Gen Singh travelled to Manipur on June 5 to assess the situation and decided to carry out the attack on Monday. As the blueprint was being made for a Monday attack while Modi was on his foreign tour, the leadership felt that the prime minister should be briefed about the finer points of the operation. Modi was then briefed in detail on Sunday night and following this, the operation was postponed to Tuesday.
In the meantime, there was also a plan to use Sukhoi and MiG-29 fighter jets but it was ruled out as the decision makers felt that it would lead to collateral damage.

Officially, the plan for the operation was passed on to Myanmarese military just ahead of the strike while a minister in the Myanmar government was informed when the government offices opened.