GUWAHATI, Jan 22 (IANS): Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley Sunday said the Himalayan nation would not allow any Indian militant groups to once again set up bases in the country.
"We shall not allow nor tolerate any Indian extremist groups to set up bases and create problem in Assam or other parts of India from Bhutan," he told journalists here.
Thinley was in Guwahati en route to Pemagetshel in Samdrup Jhonkhar district of Bhutan. Several districts of Bhutan could only be traversed from capital Thimphu by crossing stretches in adjoining Assam.
Two of Assam's influential militant groups, the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), besides the Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO) of West Bengal had well entrenched bases in Bhutan for close to a decade.
Bhutan in 2003 launched "Operation All Clear" - an offensive carried out to evict over 3,000 rebels belonging Assam and West Bengal from the Himalayan nation.
Asked to comment on reports of the presence of Maoist rebels in Bhutan, the prime minister said there were no such reports.
"We don't have any Maoist elements in Bhutan," Thinley said.
