3 Assam Rifles soldiers killed in Manipur militant attack

Imphal, July 30

Three Assam Rifles personnel were killed and six injured in an attack by suspected militants in Manipur’s Chandel district, Army sources said.

The miscreants carried out an IED explosion and opened fire on the Assam Rifles personnel while they were patrolling the Khongtal area in Chandel, near the India-Myanmar border, around 6.30 pm on Wednesday, sources said.

The bodies of three deceased jawans, Havildar Pranay Kalita, Rifleman Y.M. Konyak and Rifleman Ratan Salim, have been sent to Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) Hospital, Imphal, for autopsy.

The injured have been shifted to a military hospital in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district. No outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

“The local administration and intelligence agencies are working to identify the insurgent group that carried out the attack on the patrolling party,” said a senior government officer.

Security forces, however, suspect involvement of the banned outfit People’s Liberation Army in the attack.

Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force under the Union Home Ministry, comprises Army soldiers and officers and their own cadre officials and officers.

On June 23, a report published by the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) stated that Indian insurgents from the country’s north-eastern states, who have been sheltered for years in Myanmar, present security challenges for India.

“In addition to being threat to national security, they are also irritants that impact India’s Act East Policy. The Indian suspicion, not without basis, is that impeding the progress of India’s Act East projects has assumed weight in China’s strategic thinking. The influx of Chinese weapons is, accordingly, in tune with such thinking,” the EFSAS said. — Agencies