India asks Thailand, Myanmar to share details of probe on seized illegal arms originating from China

After the Royal Thai Army recently intercepted a huge consignment of illegal arms and ammunition, which had its origin in China and was being smuggled into Myanmar, New Delhi has requested Bangkok and Nay Pyi Taw to share findings of the probe.

New Delhi is keen to know more about the renewed flow of illegal weapons, which originate from China and make its way through South-East Asia and end up in the neighbourhood of India. What India is trying to find out is whether illegal weapons are again being smuggled from China into its restive north-eastern region, which has been a hotbed of militancy and where insurgent outfits in the past received support from China.

New Delhi’s envoy to Bangkok, Suchitra Durai, on Monday had a meeting with Unsit Sampuntharat, the governor of Tak province of Thailand near the country’s border with Myanmar. The local police chief and immigration officials were also present among the officials of the Thailand Government in the meeting.

It was at Mae Tao in Tak that the Royal Thai Army and local police had recently seized the illegal consignment of weapons just before it would have been smuggled onto Myanmar.

The weapons intercepted by the Royal Thai Army recently included 33 M16 and AK47 assault rifles, M79 grenade launchers and machine-guns, as well as a large amount of ammunition of different calibres. Two Thai and six Myanmarese nationals were arrested. The seizure of such a huge consignment of weapons sent the alarm bells ringing in Nay Pyi Taw and both the Thai Army and Myanmar Army are of the view that the consignment originated in China.

A source in New Delhi told the DH that the security agencies of India were in touch with the counterparts in Myanmar and Thailand to find more about the origin, the route and the destination of the illegal weapons.

“The insurgent organizations of India’s north-eastern states, like Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, earlier received support from China,” said the source, adding: “Though several militant organisations in North-East are now pursuing peace-processes with the Government of India, we have to keep watch if any fresh attempt is being made to trigger unrest and destabilise the region again.”

The preliminary probe led Nay Pyi Taw to believe that the weapons were possibly being procured by the Arakan Army or the Kachin Independence Army – both insurgent organizations operating in Myanmar. What, however, keeps New Delhi worried is the fact that the rebel organizations in Myanmar in the past provided training and weapons to the militants of the north-eastern region of India. “The possibility that some of the weapons would have ultimately reached the militants in our North-East cannot be ruled out,” said another source. “This seizure revealed that an illegal arms bazaar has been revived in our neighbourhood. And that’s something we would have to keep watch on.”

New Delhi has been receiving reports about continuing contacts between China’s intelligence agencies and Paresh Barua, the elusive leader of a faction of the militant organization United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), who was charged by Bangladesh Government for an abortive bid to procure a huge consignment of weapons through the Port of Chittagong for his organization in 2004.

The consignment was seized by the law-enforcing agencies of Bangladesh.

The intelligence agencies of the communist country in the past also had links with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isac-Muivah) as well as several other militant organizations of Manipur and Nagaland.