Guwahati: Arunachal Pradesh has witnessed 38 per cent rise in militancy-related incidents between 2015 and 2016 despite not having an insurgent group operating out of the frontier state.

A report of the Union home ministry says 50 incidents of violence were reported in Arunachal Pradesh in 2016 compared to 36 in the previous year. Most of the activities were spillovers of Naga insurgency and involved the NSCN (K), Ulfa (I) and the NDFB (S) that use the state as a transit area to their hideouts in Myanmar

"The state is affected by spillovers of militant activities of Naga insurgents from Nagaland-based underground factions of NSCN - NSCN (I-M), NSCN(K), NSCN (R) and NSCN (KN) - in Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts bordering Myanmar. Cadres of NDFB(S) and ULFA (I) frequent the state in the areas bordering Assam and Myanmar for shelter and transit. There are reports of forcible recruitment by the NSCN factions in the state," said the home ministry's annual report in 2016-17.

Although the three districts of Arunachal Pradesh reported more than 25 kidnapping and extortion cases, the situation was considered serious following an ambush on an Assam Rifles convoy in Longding district in December last year by suspected NSCN (K) militants, about 15km from Myanmar border, in which a jawan was killed and eight others were injured.

Security forces launched an operation following the ambush. Seven militants - one from the NSCN (I-M), four from NSCN (R) and two from Ulfa (I) - were killed and 59 others arrested in 2016. The Centre extended the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in the three districts of Arunachal Pradesh following insurgency-related incidents.

The northeastern states share 5,484km of international border of which a stretch of 520km is in Arunachal Pradesh.

The home ministry report found that in Meghalaya and Nagaland there is decrease in militancy-related incidents by 44 and 43 per cent respectively during 2015-16. The two states had seen increase in violent incidents in 2015. No insurgency-related violence was reported in Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim in 2016 and the entire region saw 15 per cent decrease in insurgency-related incidents in that year.

Manipur continued to be a concern as nearly 48 per cent of all violent incidents in the Northeast were reported from the state.

The number of insurgency-related violence in Assam continued to decline and 2016 saw the lowest number of insurgency incidents since 1997. However, Ulfa (Independent), NDFB (Saoraogwra) and Karbi People's Liberation Tigers (KPLT) continue to be active in the state.

Deaths of security forces in militant attacks in the Northeast declined from 46 in 2015 to 17 in 2016.

"Civilian casualties declined in all states except Assam where it increased from nine in 2015 to 29 in 2016. The number of kidnapping/abduction incidents also declined in the region (2015- 267, 2016-168). Counter-insurgency operations led to the killings of 87 militants, arrests of 1,202 militants and recovery of 605 weapons in 2016 in the region," the report said.