Top Army commanders visit northeast to review situation

Guwahati:Top Army officials are now visiting the northeastern states and holding meetings with senior Army, Para-Military and civil administration officials to review the situations in the region, which last month witnessed violent protests against the new Citizenship Act.

Defence sources on Tuesday said that Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Command accompanied by Lieutenant General Rajeev Sirohi, General Officer Commanding Spear Corps are on a 5-day visit to the northeastern states including Manipur and Nagaland.

"During the ongoing visit, the two senior commanders would meet the senior Army, Para-Military and civil administration officials and review the situations in the region and the bordering areas," an Army official told IANS.

He said that the Army Commanders would also visit forward areas along the India-Myanmar borders to take stock of the situation on ground and interact extensively with the men deployed in the remote areas of northeast India.

Four northeastern states -- Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh -- share a 1,640 km unfenced border with Myanmar while four states of Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam share an 1,880 km border with Bangladesh.

The northeastern states specially Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur witnessed huge protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) forcing the authorities to deploy Army, Central Para-Military Forces and to suspend mobile Internet services for many days.

After violent protests against the CAA, curfew was imposed in Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tinsukia and a few other cities of Assam on December 11 and the army was deployed. Curfew was also imposed for more than ten days in Meghalaya capital Shillong.