By Rohan Joshi
India’s recent cross-border strike into Myanmar leaves many questions, but it’s no model for Pakistan-based terror.
On June 4, militants attacked an Indian Army convoy in the district of Chandel in the northeastern state of Manipur, resulting in the deaths of 18 members of the army’s 6th Dogra Regiment. The attackers, who were likely members of Naga militant groups, reportedly crossed over into neighboring Myanmar. Then on June 9, a contingent of the Indian Army’s Special Forces crossed into Myanmar and killed several militants in an operation lasting over 14 hours. India’s Ministry of Defense and the office of Myanmar’s President Thein Sein confirmed that the army’s Special Forces had crossed into Myanmar to execute the operation.
The cross-border operation itself is significant and signals that political willingness now exists in New Delhi to pursue those that target the state even beyond India’s territorial borders.
Details of the actual operation, which some reports suggest was carried out by paramilitary and Army Special Forces, are limited. But by all available accounts, all aspects of the sensitive operation, from the diplomatic to the military were efficiently executed. India also benefited from assistance provided by the Myanmar government. The cross-border raid itself was facilitated by a 2010 India-Myanmar agreement on counter-terrorism.
However, India’s media and some of its politicians reacted to the operation with predictable bombast. Parallels between the Myanmar operation and the United States’Operation Geronimo (that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden) were drawn when almost none exist. One news media house claimed that the Indian Army “did a Rambo on Naga militants,” whatever that means. Over-enthusiastic news reporters described “hot pursuits” and “precision strikes” when neither term accurately represents the operation.
Read the full story at The Diplomat