The two-day conference of the Director Generals of Police and the Inspector Generals of Police of the North-Eastern States is likely to see launch of an joint platform of police forces of the N-E States and Central police force operating in the region.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday inaugurated the two day conference in Guwahati which was also participated by the top police officials from West Bengal and Sikkim. The Chief Minister while inaugurating the conference also stressed that a concerted effort through a joint mechanism is the need of the hour to fight the challenges of terrorism and crimes in the region.

A senior official of the Assam Police said that they are likely to come up with suggestion to form NEPOl in lines with Interpol (International Police Organisation), which will facilitate cooperation between the States of region including West Bengal and Sikkim in tackling insurgency, cross border crime and smuggling.

“In the lines of Interpol which is facilitating international police cooperation, we are launching NEPOl for greater cooperation among states of the region. West Bengal and Sikkim will be members of it besides seven states of the region,” said Additional Director General of Police (Special Branch) of the Assam Police, Pallab Bhattacharyya.

He said that the conference will deliberate on Intelligence sharing mechanism besides cooperation of security forces dealing with terrorists, cross border crimes and other crimes.

The formation of NEPOl assumes significance as there is a need to face the challenges jointly by the northeastern states particularly after the northeastern militants outfits have already came under one platform christened, United liberation Front of Western South East Asia (UNlFW). The UNlFW comprises the anti-talk faction of Ulfa, Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) faction, Kamatapur liberation Organization (KlO) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit), which are also opposed to talks.

This UNlFW had already orchestrated several strikes on security forces in different states of the northeastern region.

It may be mentioned here that the police force in northeastern states face tough challenge due to its geographical location. The eight northeastern states share over 4,500km long border with Bangladesh, China, Myanmar and Bhutan. India and Bangladesh share a 4,096-km-long border, of which 262 km falls in Assam alone.

Meanwhile, Bhattacharyya said that Cyberdome, the hi-tech centre for cyber security will be launched shortly in Assam. The state budget in Assam for the current fiscal has already made provision for it.