Tezpur, May 28: The army today advocated tougher legal provisions to win the fight against insurgency.

GOC, 4 Corps, Lt Gen. B.S. Jaswal, told newsmen in this garrison town that it has become imperative to stop arrested militants from getting bail easily to effectively curb militancy.

“We need to have tougher legal provisions in place as we have reports about most arrested militants returning to the rebel fold once they are out on bail. To stop this recycling we need to have tougher laws. I will not be able to say the kind of legislation required as I am not well versed in that subject but it should be something like putting the arrested militants behind bars for a longer duration,” the GOC, who assumed charge in August, said.

Building a strong case in favour of tougher legislation against those who endanger public safety, Gen. Jaswal said a longer term behind bars would not only de-motivate the militants but also keep them away from their mentors. “Anybody carrying explosives or arms that threatens public safety has to be dealt with firmly,” he said.

Citing an example to prove his point, he said a militant was arrested in Sivasagar district with three IEDs. “He was arrested but got out on bail. He was re-arrested with five IEDs. This proves that they go back to the organisation. This can be stopped only if there is tougher legislation.”

The senior army official, who is in charge of the operations group of the Unified Command in the state, said it would not be militarily possible to decimate insurgency in three years as claimed by the state government recently. Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said the Tarun Gogoi-led government would be able to resolve the problems plaguing Assam, including insurgency vis-à-vis Ulfa, in three years.

“Militarily, our experience shows that it is not possible to wipe out insurgency, which is nothing but terrorism here. But if the present trend of operations continues, it can definitely be brought down to a manageable level..”

Describing 2007 as the “golden year” in the fight against militants as counter-insurgency operations has neutralised around 3,000 militants by way of arrests and encounters, Gen. Jaswal said the morale of Ulfa was extremely low. “We have been able to neutralise around 80 leaders of Ulfa.”

Yesterday, I was apprised by the state government at a meeting of the operations group that there were around 40 Ulfa leaders in Bangladesh. Their strength is clearly diminishing and this is because of the support of the common man to the security forces and sustained operations. Today, there was big chasm between their leaders within the country and outside,” he said.