GUWAHATI: Two Assam Rifles personnel, including a junior commissioned officer, were killed and eight others injured when their convoy was ambushed by suspected militants of the SS Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) in Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday.
According to defence sources, the militants carried out the attack around 2 pm near Nginu village in Tirap district. The site of the incident is not far from the India-Myanmar border.
A column of the 16 Assam Rifles had gone out on Friday on a routine patrol. On Saturday, while returning, they came under heavy fire from the militants who used automatic weapons, sources said. The condition of two of the injured personnel was critical, they added. All the injured were airlifted to a military hospital in Assam. The Assam Rifles suspects that NSCN-K’s self-styled brigadier Peyong masterminded the attack.
This is the third ambush by militants on security forces in the Northeast in the past fortnight. On November 19, a combined team of the NSCN-K and the United Liberation Front of Assam had carried out an ambush on Army personnel in Assam, killing three and injuring four others. This was followed by another ambush on a group of 21 Para commandos in Manipur on November 26. Five Army personnel were injured in that attack.
Insurgent outfits of the Northeast have their bases in Myanmar. A number of them have come under one umbrella after the formation of United National Liberation Front of Western South East Asia.