By Mubasshir Mushtaq
MUMBAI, India
India has hinted at continuing military operations against separatist militants in the border area with Myanmar, a day after claiming to have killed 100 militants.
The local Indian Express newspaper quoted unnamed senior officials on Thursday saying there are 20 militant camps on India's eastern border that could be targeted in the future.
India claimed on Wednesday that it carried out strikes against militants inside Myanmar, though Myanmar responded that the operations remained on the Indian side of the border.
India's claim that 100 militants were killed has also been disputed, with the Times of India newspaper reporting that only 20 were killed.
The separatist Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) also contested the army's claims on Wednesday, saying it is an attempt to “salvage their reputation.”
In a leaflet distributed to local media in northeastern Manipur state, a faction of the NSCN challenged the Indian army to display the bodies of the insurgents killed in the cross-border strike.
The outfit denied that it suffered any casualties and said its members were “peacefully paying” respect at the funeral services of their members who died while carrying out an ambush that killed 18 Indian soldiers on June 4.
The ambush, which provoked the Indian army's heavy military response, was allegedly carried out by the NSCN and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup, two separatist groups active in the northeast state, which shares a porous border with Myanmar.
There are hundreds of separatist groups from different states in India's remote northeast, many of which frequently cross over the porous border with Myanmar and Bangladesh to escape the attention of Indian security forces and to store weapons.
Meanwhile, another report in the Indian Express has questioned the Indian army’s killing of 12 alleged Maoists in the eastern state of Jharkhand on Monday. Out of the seven identified bodies, only one had a police case against him. The dead included four children.
“There is nothing to suggest that the four children killed on Monday night were combatants,” Delhi-based pressure group Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association said in a statement on Wednesday.
The group called for an investigation and said police operations that involve killings should follow guidelines set by the Supreme Court.
“No amount of jingoism about violence of ‘non-state actors’ can or should justify the cynical taking of lives of children by the state agencies,” the statement said.
