New Delhi: Assam Rifles, the paramilitary force entrusted with fighting insurgency in Northeast and guarding the Indo-Myanmar border, will induct more than 30,000 troops in coming years.
The force, which currently has 65,000 troops, will raise 26 new battalions over the next decade and build roads, helipads and posts along the 1,600 km long Indo-Myanmar border. "Approvals for increasing the strength by 26 battalions is in a very advanced stage. By the year end, the process of raising the new battalions will start. We will raise three to four battalions every year," Assam Rifles Director General Karan Singh Yadava said. The first three of the new battalions will be raised by the end of this year and stationed in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, he said.
The main purpose of raising the new units, Yadava said, would be to check the movement of goods like drugs and arms across the porous Indo-Myanmar border, which is one of the main routes for smuggling of weapons and drugs into India.
Asked about reports that weapons were being smuggled into the country through China, Yadava said his men have found weapons with Chinese markings but there was "no indication that arms were being pushed into the Northeast from China".
Assam Rifles is under the administrative control of the Home Ministry but under the operational control of the Army. The most active anti-insurgency force in Northeast, it has participated in all wars and conflicts since independence.