GUWAHATI: Three Assam Rifles personnel were killed while five others injured in an ambush laid by the militants in Manipur’s Chandel district bordering Myanmar.
Official sources said the attack was perpetrated on Wednesday evening at Khongtal area of the district when the troops of the country’s oldest paramilitary force were on a “road opening duty”.
The militants first triggered an IED blast and then fired a barrage of shots targeting the personnel.
The slain jawans were identified as Pranay Kalita from Assam, Ratan Salam from Manipur, and Methna Konyak from Nagaland. The bodies were sent to the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital in Imphal for autopsy.
The injured personnel were airlifted to the city and admitted to a military hospital there.
The security forces cordoned off the entire area and launched a massive search operation. Three militant groups jointly claimed responsibility for the attack.
“As a course of independence struggle against Indian colonisation and expansionism, a combined force of Manipur Naga People’s Front, Revolutionary People’s Front and (the Paresh Baruah faction of) United Liberation Front Asom (ULFA-Independent) had conducted a joint military offensive against Indian Occupational Forces (IOFs). During this joint military offensive, around four IOFs personnel were killed and many more wounded,” the outfits claimed in a statement issued jointly to the media.
The statement added: “We deeply regret that in our liberation struggle our brothers of WeSEA (West South East Asia) are killed or wounded in action. We know that joining the IOFs is not right because roguish India makes enmity among our brothers. Therefore, we would like to ask our brothers and sisters of WeSEA to please withdraw from the Indian forces and instead fight against them for our independence”.
The groups also said the Indian security forces were the super spreader of Covid-19.