The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju has clarified that the 20-km border belt between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh was already declared a ‘Disturbed Area’ since long time due to various terrorist and insurgent groups operating in Assam. Of late, it has been observed that splinter groups of insurgents, particularly NDFB(S) and ULFA(I) have not only been using Arunachal Pradesh as a transit to Myanmar but also taking sanctuary in the bordering districts of the state with Assam beyond the 20 km belt declared disturbed along the border with Assam and as a result, security forces have been finding it increasingly difficult to act against them, even if they know their whereabouts.

Declaration of the districts bordering Assam, in Arunachal Pradesh, as disturbed has been made with the sole purpose of enabling the forces to chase and arrest these terrorists and insurgents irrespective of the distance they cover in Arunachal Pradesh for a limited period till these violent Assam-based groups are neutralised. Reading anything about this measure beyond this is improper and unfortunate.

The state government does not seem to be comfortable with this measure while at the same time the state police has not proved to be effective in dealing with these terrorists. Under the circumstances, the Ministry of Home Affairs is left with no alternative but to ask the state government as to what alternative would they like so that the national and internal security is not compromised and innocent peace loving citizens of Arunachal are not unnecessarily affected.