New Delhi - Indian paramilitary troopers have arrested 15 suspected al-Qaeda operatives from a border town in the country's north-east after the group entered the region from Myanmar, reports said Monday. A defence ministry spokesman said Assam Rifles troopers arrested the group from a house on Friday at Moreh town, 110 kilometres from Manipur state capital Imphal, the IANS news agency reported.
Moreh is located on the border with Myanmar, with which India shares an 1,600-kilometre boundary.
"The group of 15 Muslim migrants had entered Moreh from Myanmar without valid documents. We shall be handing them over to the police Monday for further interrogation," defence spokesman Lalit Pant was quoted as saying by the IANS.
No arms or ammunition were recovered from the group, which comprised 10 Myanmar and five Bangladeshis who were planning to enter Bangladesh from Manipur's neighbouring state of Assam.
"There is a strong suspicion that they have links with al-Qaeda or some other Muslim fundamentalist or terrorist groups. We shall soon be interrogating them," an unnamed police official told IANS.
Manipur is a hotbed of insurgency and 19 militant groups are believed to be active in the state. Most rebel groups in Manipur have bases in Myanmar from where they carry out hit-and-run guerrilla strikes in the region.
Although some little-known militant outfits have claimed that al-Qaeda has started its operations in India from India-administered Kashmir, domestic security agencies said there was no evidence to show that the global terror network had a presence in the state or elsewhere in India.
