Thimphu, June 19: Bhutan on Friday assured India that
there was no ULFA presence in that country.
"We don't have any presence of any ULFA cadre here,"
Bhutanese Foreign Minister Ugyen Tshering told reporters after
signing an MoU with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna.
He said Bhutan wants to make it very clear that there is
no presence of ULFA cadre in that country.
"I have no knowledge (of ULFA's presence here)...This is
something, what we also read in Indian papers but we do not
have any presence (of ULFA) here, it should be made very very
clear. Where and how these reports had come, we also do not
know," he said while replying questions on Indian intelligence
reports of presence of some ULFA units in the bordering areas
of Bhutan.
There were intelligence reports that some ULFA activities
were still witnessed along the Indo-Bhutanese border resulting
in some violent attacks by the insurgent group in those areas.
"But I can very categorically say that the purpose of the
previous activities was not to have a situation where there is
any presence of ULFA cadres here," he added.
Bhutan, in a major military operation in 2003, had
cracked down on camps of United Liberation Front of Asom
(ULFA) insurgents in that country.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, June 19, 2009, 18:49