The Centre on Saturday handed over the probe into the killing of 18 Armymen by militants in Manipur to the NIA even as Intelligence agencies suspect Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) could have provided the sophisticated arms and ammunition to the local insurgent groups and the attack could be the handiwork of an umbrella group formed recently under the banner of United liberation Front of Western South Asia (UlFWSA) at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
JuD, an offshoot of Pakistan-based lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) and backed by ISI, has been seeking to target India by providing logistics to the insurgent groups in the North-East. And UlFWSA comprises the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang), a faction of United liberation Front of Asom (UlFA) led by Paresh Baruah, the National Democratic
Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) and Kamtapur liberation Organisation (KlO). The JuD has been running terror camps in the pockets where Rohingya Muslims are settled across the Myanmar border and has been receiving significant contributions from foreign donors, especially, from the Middle East.
UlFWSA, for its part, seeks convergence of interests and operations of the numerous insurgent groups operating in the region by sharing resources for ‘effective’ results against the security forces. The new outfit has come up recently after the NSCN (K) junked its 15-year-old ceasefire with the Centre.
Intelligence sources tracking the activities of JuD in Myanmar said the outfit has been instrumental in organising protests every few days against the Myanmar Government for alleged atrocities on Rohingyas with a view to galvanise their sentiments for jehadi agenda and for collection of funds from other countries in the name of supporting the cause of the community.
Underscoring the need to identify the supply route of arms and ammunition reaching militant groups in the North-East, officials said the primary source of such weapons reaching the insurgents could be from China, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Soon after being handed over the probe into the incident, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) formed a six-member team, which left for the State, to crack the case. It will head straight to the crime spot. Apart from probing the suspected complicity of JuD, the agency will also look into the possible role of local informers in providing logistical support to the insurgent groups like NSCN-K and UlFA among others, sources said.
The NIA will also look into the Intelligence failure aspect, if any, and any violation in Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that led to the severe casualties of the personnel of 6 Dogra Regiment. The agency will ascertain the larger conspiracy behind the pattern of attacks on Army in the last few months besides probe the source of supply of sophisticated arms like rocket-propelled guns to the insurgent groups. The insurgents have targeted Army personnel at least five times in the last few months and inflicted casualties and injuries on them.
The NIA, which was set up in the aftermath of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, is mandated to probe all terror related cases anywhere in the country. Since the Manipur incident is one of the worst cases involving terror attack, the Centre swiftly handed over the probe to the Central agency, sources said.
NIA is already probing the killings of three Army personnel by the suspected NSCN-K militants in April. On April 2, the insurgents had ambushed an army vehicle near Old Tupi village on the Khonsa-longding road in Arunachal Pradesh and killed three Rajput Regiment jawans while four others were critically injured.
While Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag had rushed to Manipur on Friday, security forces continued their combing operations in the state on Saturday. The ambush in Manipur’s Chandel district left 18 army personnel dead and 11 injured.
NIA is also probing a case wherein NSCN (K) militants had allegedly fired upon Assam Rifles personnel near the Indira Gandhi Stadium Gate in Nagaland on March 26 injuring four personnel.