New Delhi: Manipur CM N Biren Singh on Saturday aid the paramilitary forces along with the commandos have launched a massive combing operation in the area of the attack on Assam Rifles to nab the culprits. He said this after visiting the Shija Hospital in Imphal where one of the jawans injured in today’s attack on the Assam Rifles convoy is admitted. “I have directed my officials and hospital authority to provide the best medical care for the jawan,” the CM said.

In the attack on Assam Rifles, seven people, including the wife and son of the Commanding Officer of an Assam Rifles unit, were killed in an ambush in Manipur’s Churachandpur district.

Speaking to India Today, Biren Singh said the incident took place when the armed men infiltrated 4 kilometres into the Indian territory from the border with Myanmar.

Giving further details, the chief minister said that the incident happened on the border with Myanmar and the state government has already sent commandos and police teams.

Viplav Tripathi, the Commanding Officer of Khuga Battalion of Assam Rifles, a colonel rank officer, his family, and others died in an ambush on Saturday morning, in fresh eruption of militant violence in the border state blamed on an insurgent outfit.

Tripathi’s convoy was targeted at Sehkan village in Churachandpur district by suspected militants of the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), an insurgent group in Manipur, demanding a separate homeland.

Condemning the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the sacrifices of the soldiers and their families will never be forgotten.

“I pay homage to those soldiers and family members who have been martyred today. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of sadness,” the PM wrote on Twitter.

Assam Rifles is the oldest paramilitary force in the country raised in 1835 under the British rule. It is under the administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) but operational control of the Indian Army.