Malda, Dec. 3: Five companies of the crack Special Services Bureau (SSB) will be deployed along the India-Bhutan border, according to inspector-general of police (north Bengal) Bhupinder Singh, to crack down on militants who sneak into India to collect arms and then cross over to safety.

Singh said the border areas of the region would also get five companies of the Border Security Force (BSF).

“We are worried about our border with Nepal. No one needs any papers to move between Nepal and India, and Bangladesh is some 50 km from the frontier. Militant outfits often use this route to smuggle arms and ammunition from Bangladesh, Assam and Meghalaya to camps in Bhutan,” explained Singh.

The SSB is a paramilitary wing of the Research and Analysis Wing.

The Kamtapur Liberation Organisation and Ulfa still have several camps in Bhutan. “We have been requesting the Bhutan government to crack down on them but we have had no response,” Singh said.

The inspector-general was at the police lines here to inaugurate a brainstorming session and a training programme, which had police personnel coming in from Malda, South and North Dinajpur.

The district police superintendents and Malda range deputy-inspector-general of police Gaurav Dutt also attended the session.

Singh claimed heightened security along the borders had prevented militant organisations and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from carrying out largescale terrorist attacks.