Operation Golden Bird

Operation Golden Bird was an Indian-Myanmar military operation which occurred in April–May 1995. The operation was initiated by the 57th Mountain Division of the Indian Army , which tracked down and decapitated a rebel column that had picked up a huge consignment of weapons at the Wyakaung beach (on the Myanmar-Bangladesh coast south of Chittagong and Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh), and was moving that through the jungles of Mizoram, Northeast India. The consignment was to be delivered in Manipur, India. The operation was named after a Grimm Brothers fairytale. Operation Golden Bird was a joint India-Myanmar military operation carried out along the Mizoram border that led to the elimination of dozens of terrorists. It was one of the successful counter-insurgency operations of Indian Army. The counterpoint to Golden Bird was Purulia arms drop case.

Background

Location of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh

The weapons were purchased in Thailand and were brought by sea to Bangladesh. Then these weapons were smuggled back to Northeast India by groups of rebel guerrillas marching back. Wyakaung beach located south of Bangladesh’s coastal town of Cox’s Bazaar was the favourite landing spot for these weapons, but at least six other points in the Cox’s Bazaar district were used. The guerrillas of the NSCN, the Manipuri groups, the ULFA and the NDFB would then pick these and carry them back through one of three routes: (a) the Chittagong Hill Tracts-south Mizoram-east Manipur route, skirting the border with Burma; (b) the Chittagong Hill Tracts-tripura-west Mizoram-west Manipur route and (c) the Chittagong-Sylhet-Meghalaya-Assam route. In the last several years, Sylhet-Meghalaya has been used more frequently by the rebels. The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) has helped the Northeast Indian rebel groups to safely land these weapons and only on a few occasions have weapons meant for these rebel groups been intercepted by the Bangladesh police, who were misled into believing that the weapons were intended for criminals in that country. With Bangladesh emerging as the gateway to Northeast India for weapons brought in from Thailand, the rebels in Tripura were best located to carry them back. Both the National Liberation Front of Tripura(NLFT) and the All-Tripura Tiger Force(ATTF) have secured weapons from NSCN. The NDFB and ULFA helped them cache the weapons at their bases in the Chittagong Hill tracts before they were carried to their respective base areas in Northeast India.

The operation

Location of Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh

Operation Golden Bird was initiated to intercept a column of north-eastern rebels —Naga, Manipuri and Assamese — making its way through the jungles of southern Mizoram after picking up a consignment of weapons that had landed at Wyakaung beach, on the Myanmar-Bangladesh coast. The operation was aimed at flushing out ULFA, NSCN and Manipuri fighters in camps along the border. Bangladesh military intelligence service Directorate General of Forces Intelligence(DGFI) had helped carry the consignment in trucks to a hill base in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, from where the rebels had picked them up. National Unity Party of Arakan(NUPA) guerrillas followed the whole operation, providing details to Indian military intelligence, on the basis of which India’s eastern army command initiated Operation Golden Bird. The rebel column was twice intercepted by Indian troops.It was a 45-day operation, but the operation ended abruptly as Rangoon ordered its army to pull out of the operation in the middle of operation. The Myanmar army played its part by sealing its side of the border until the awarding of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award to Aung San Suu Kyi upset them and the survivors of the trapped rebel column managed to escape into the wilds of Myanmar’s Chin Hills through gaps in the dragnet caused by the Myanmar Armed Forces’s (Tatmadaw) withdrawal.

Casualties

38 rebels were killed, and 118 captured and more than 100 weapons were seized with large quantities of ammunition. The captured rebels blew the lid on the weapons trail and India pressured Bangladesh during Khaleda Zia's first government(1991-1996) to block it. The Burmese army had taken some casualties in this operation.

Aftermath

Purulia arms drop case followed after this operation on 17 December 1995.

See also

• Chin Hills
• Indo-Burma barrier
• Purulia arms drop case
• Chittagong Hill Tracts
• Cox's Bazar
• Insurgency in Northeast India
• Arakan Mountains