The Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), an insurgent group which aims at establishing a separate State within Bangladesh, are using hideouts in Mizoram in Northeast India and the KNF is also being trained by Kuki National Army (KNA) in Manipur, according to sources.
The border protection forces of Bangladesh and India will hold their bi-annual border-level talks in New Delhi today where the BGB is expected to officially raise the issue to the BSF side.
But the local police, paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the military carry out special operations from time to time to dismantle their training camps and hideouts. After such operations most KNF members cross the Bangladeshi border and hideout at Mizoram in Northeast India.
A high official of BGB preferring anonymity told The Daily Observer BGB will also hand over a list KNF members who were in hideout inside the Indian territory. Nathan Bom, president of the insurgent group KNF, is also the list.
The group KNF tried to stop the road construction work going on in Thanchi under the supervision of the Bangladesh Army.
Failing it, they kidnapped 20 workers. The KNF held 6 of them hostage, one sustained bullet wounds and 13 others were freed after extortion money was paid, according to sources.
The KNF also maintains close ties with like-minded groups operating in Mizoram, Manipur in India, Rakhine State in Myanmar and the CHT. In Bangladesh, the group blames Jana Samhati Samity (JSS) for alleged persecution and discrimination and the Arakan Army for coordinated attacks on other ethnic minority communities like Mro, Lusai, Khumi, Khyang and Pangkhua of the CHT.
In October, law enforcers discovered that KNF was training members of a new militant group named Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya in exchange for money.
"Separatist" group KNF, which consists of young male and female members of the Bom community, maintains close ties with like-minded groups operating in Mizoram, Manipur, Rakhine State and the CHT.
Moreover, around 50 to 60 of the KNF members are said to be undergoing training with sophisticated weapons.
On November 20 and 21 last year, at least 270 persons from 76 families of the Bom community left their homes in the CHT as Mizoram Refugees. Most of those people were children and women, and none were males aged 14 to 60.
The KNF was officially launched as an armed organization with 2,000 members in the hills in May last year.
Since October, when the law enforcers discovered KNF's ties to Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya, the joint forces and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have arrested dozens of members of the two groups during raids on the training camps and seized arms and ammunition.
They are believed to have 2,000 members armed with heavy weapons, including AK 47, in the Jampui Hills of Bandarban's Ruma border and Mizoram border of India.
The four days long 53rd Director General (DG) level border conference between Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) and Indian Border Security Force will begin in Indian capital New Delhi from Sunday morning.
DG of the BGB Major General AKM Nazmul Hasan will lead 14-member Bangladesh delegation while his counterpart DG BSF Dr Sujoy Lal Thaosen will lead a 10-member Indian delegation at the four-day talks, which will end on Wednesday through signing of a Joint Record of Discussions (JRD).
Sources at the BGB headquarters here said the 10-member Bangladesh delegation led by BGB DG Maj Genl AKM Nazmul Hasan has already reached New Delhi from Dhaka on Saturday Noon to join the border talks.
BSF DG Dr Sujoy Lal Thaosen welcomed and received the DG BGB Maj Gen Nazmul Hasan when he reached Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi at noon.
The Conference will be held at BSF Chawla Camp in New Delhi this morning. After completion of the conference, the Bangladesh delegation will return home on Wednesday afternoon, said Shariful Islam, Public Relation Officer of the BGB headquarters.
