After 40-50 heavily armed terrorists ambushed and killed 16 policemen in Manipur, security forces are combing the area to catch the perpetrators and have recovered a large cache of weapons. The six vehicle police convoy was returning after supervising elections and it is unclear which group was responsible for the attack although The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and Manipur People's Liberation Front were known to operate in the area seeking independent homelands in Manipur and neighboring Nagaland.

Separatists have long accused India of doing little for indigenous people while exploiting natural resources in the North East. While most of the population in the North East is poor with little infrastructure, the exploitation accusation is baseless since the government has been unable to get its act together to tap natural gas, oil, or uranium deposits.

Some claim that they want to be associated with China or Myanmar because of ethnic links with those peoples. However, this is a purely nonsensical claim since most of the populations till recently were Hindus and have been followers of mainland religions such as Buddhism. It is only from the 1960s, when there was a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) campaign to convert populations to Christianity did insurgencies start.

With a booming economy, it is extremely unlikely that the populations would want to be associated with a politically unstable and economically bankrupt Myanmar or a politically repressive China. Most of these separatists take funding from other nations to create trouble and instability in the area and take advantage of the porous border with Myanmar to further their terror activities.

Myanmar has pledged to not allow its territory to be used for terrorism. It even launched an operation against the NSCN and United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) with little results. So far, no joint operations along the lines of the one that the Indian Army launched against the ULFA with Bhutan have been planned. However, news reports suggest that New Delhi is pressing Yangon on such an operation.