Three personnel of paramilitary Assam Rifles were killed and five others injured in an ambush by suspected extremists groups in Manipur’s Chandel district on Wednesday night.
The incident happened around 6:30 p.m. at Khongtal village near the Myanmar border, officials from Assam Rifles headquarters near Meghalaya capital Shillong said on Thursday.
Three outfits in the region - the Manipur National People's Front, the Revolutionary People's Front and the United Liberation Front Asom-Independent - claimed to have carried out the “joint military offensive”. They also claimed four Assam Rifles personnel were killed and many more wounded.
The personnel killed in the ambush have been identified as Pranay Kalita from Assam, Ratan Salam from Manipur and Methna Konyak from Nagaland of 4 Assam Rifles battalion.
“The injured men were airlifted to a military hospital for treatment. Additional forces were sent to the spot and combing operations launched in the surrounding areas”, a Chandel district police officer said, adding that some of the assailants could have been injured in the exchange of fire.
The ambush happened less than a week after a reported rift within the Myanmar-based Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, which is known to host the fugitives of most extremist groups of the Northeast in its Sagaing Division stronghold in the neighbouring country.
Three arrested
On July 27, personnel of the 22 Assam Rifles operating in Manipur's Ukhrul district arrested three members of the underground Kanglei Yawol Kunna Lup and another of People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak in Imphal Valley. The arrested extremists were later handed over to police.