"Small batches of ULFA militants with about 200 weapons have started leaving their camps in Bhutan and trying to infiltrate into parts of Assam and neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh," Deputy Inspector General of Assam Police, Dilip Borah, said. "Interrogations of some of the arrested militants revealed that they are under pressure with supply of rice and other provisions drying up," he added. Two ULFA cadres were killed in Guwahati on Monday, while two others were shot dead by police in separate encounters Tuesday in eastern Assam and in Arunachal Pradesh.

At least six AK-47 assault rifles and a huge cache of ammunition were recovered from the dead rebels. Indian and Bhutanese troops have intensified patrolling along the Indo-Bhutan border, cutting off the supply of provisions and blocking possible entry points for the rebels to sneak into Assam and its neighboring states. "One of the arrested ULFA cadres said they were surviving on potatoes, wild roots and herbs in the jungles of Bhutan with supply of rice and other edibles becoming scarce due to stepped up vigil by security forces on both sides of the international border," Borah said.

The Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) intensified operations against Indian rebels after Bhutan's National Assembly - under strong pressure from New Delhi - ordered greater efforts to flush out anti-India separatists holed up on the Bhutanese side of the border. The outlawed ULFA and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), both fighting for independent homelands in Assam, established bases in southeast Bhutan more than three years ago, officials said. The rebels have used these bases to organise hit-and-run guerrilla strikes against targets on the India side of the border. India estimates that more than 4,000 armed rebels are operating from across the border. More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the oil and tea rich state of Assam during the past decade.

(India Abroad News Service)