GUWAHATI: At least 22 Bhutanese nationals have been found guilty of aiding and abetting Indian separatists and 123 more are facing trial on the same count in the Himalayan kingdom, reports say.

Bhutan's government-run newspaper Kuensel, quoting Prime Minister Lyonpo Jigmi Y Thinley, said the penalties for the 22 people would be decided by the judiciary.

He said among the suspects and those convicted on charges of conspiring with Indian militants were eight civil servants, 36 business people, and 94 farmers, besides some government and private road construction workers.

The charges against the suspects range from supplying rations to the militants and accepting money in exchange for the services.

The Kuensel report quoted Thinley's statements in the ongoing session of Bhutan's National Assembly in capital Thimphu.

The newspaper said the suspects were being tried in various Bhutanese courts on charges of colluding with three outlawed Indian separatist groups - the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO).

The three rebel groups had earlier maintained well-entrenched bases inside the Himalayan kingdom to carry out hit-and-run guerrilla strikes on Indian soldiers in the northeastern state of Assam and parts of the eastern state of West Bengal.

The Bhutanese military launched an eviction drive in December, smashing up to 30 rebel camps, and claimed to have ousted the militants from their territory.

"The prime minister informed the members of the Assembly that a total of 145 suspected accomplices and accessories were being tried by the Bhutanese courts and the investigations were still continuing. Some cases had been dropped because of lack of evidence," the Kuensel report stated.

The prime minister's statement on the floor of the National Assembly follows demands by elected representatives from various districts about awarding strict punishment to Bhutanese nationals facing trial.

"Supplying rations to the militants and accepting money was tantamount to an act of treason," one of the representatives was quoted as saying by Kuensel.

Assembly Speaker Dasho Ugen Dorje said people who had collaborated with the militants would be tried and punished according to the provisions of the National Security Act.

The rebel groups had been located in Bhutan for 12 years and the government had repeatedly urged the militants to leave the kingdom peacefully. The military operations came after six years of failed talks with the rebels in Bhutan, a largely Buddhist kingdom of 700,000 people that has close political ties with India.

Bhutan shares a 380-km unfenced border with the two Indian states of Assam and West Bengal.

Indo-Asian News Service