Guwahati, Dec. 30: Two years after flushing out militants of the Northeast from its soil, Bhutan has joined hands with Assam to tackle the threat posed by Maoist rebels.

A joint strategy was worked out at a meeting between officials of Bhutan and Assam at Punakha in Bhutan recently, where the neighbours reviewed the threat perception.

The home ministry had recently alerted at least three states of the region ? Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura ? about militant outfits based in these states trying to forge links with the Bhutan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) and the Purba Banglar Communist Party?s (Marxist-Leninist) Red Flag faction.

The two-day meeting yielded district-level mechanisms for better co-ordination between the two sides on a day-to-day basis, a senior government official from Assam said.

He said better connectivity would ensure quick exchange of information on subversive activities of Maoists and other insurgent groups on either side of the border.

Recently, the Centre sanctioned the formation of 20 additional battalions to strengthen the Sasashtra Seema Bal (SSB) guarding the Indo-Bhutan border. The border stretches from Arunachal Pradesh to Sikkim. The SSB has identified some sensitive and hyper-sensitive areas which need more reinforcement to deal with the militant threat effectively, the official said.

At present there are 10 battalions of the SSB posted along the border, each having a strength of 1,000 personnel, sources said.

Of these, three battalions are engaged solely for convoy protection on subsidiary roads linking the Himalayan kingdom with India.

India has been providing police escorts to vehicles plying to and from Bhutan after Operation All Clear, following intelligence reports of possible terror attacks on Bhutanese citizens.

The new battalions sanctioned by Delhi will be posted in Gosaigaon, Howli and Rangia in Assam, Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and Alipurduar in West Bengal.

The BCP (MLM), which is waging ?war? against the Wangchuk dynasty that has been ruling Bhutan for over 95 years, also campaigned against what it called India?s ?expansionist policy? and the ?Sikkimisation? of Bhutan.

Intelligence sources here claimed that a few months ago, Ulfa and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation had trained nearly 150 cadre of the Bhutanese militant group in guerrilla warfare for a week, at the bidding of the PBCP in Bangladesh.