11 injured; NSCN-K insurgent outfit claims responsibility for ambush
The Indian Army suffered one of its biggest casualties in a decade when militants killed 20 soldiers and injured 11 others after they ambushed their convoys in Chandel district of Manipur on Thursday.
The NSCN-K insurgent outfit late on Thursday night claimed responsibility for the attack on the convoy. The Army was now carrying out combing operations in the area where the attack took place.
The ambush took place at about 9 am at a thickly-forested spot between Paralong and Charong villages when a four-vehicle convoy of 6 Dogra Regiment was on its way to Tengnoupal from its location in adjacent larong, about 80 km from Imphal.
The militants first triggered a landmine blast through improvised explosive device (IED) blowing the first two vehicles and then fired rockets and grenades. The other two vehicles came under heavy firing from automatic weapons. Most of the soldiers were trapped in the ill-fated vehicles and took some time to regroup and retaliate, officials said.
One suspected militant was also reportedly injured in the ensuing brief firefight. The injured soldiers were evacuated by helicopters and brought to base hospital in Dimapur, Nagaland for medical treatment.
The dead Armymen included one Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and 19 jawans, officials said adding the militants managed to escape into the nearby jungles. The International Border with Myanmar is 20 km from the site of the ambush. Security forces are of the view that the militants escaped into the neighbouring country.
Most of the militant groups of Manipur and Nagaland have their training camps and hideouts in jungles in Myanmar and take refuge there after carrying out a terrorist strike, they said.
Earlier, in Impha Manipur Home Secretary J Suresh Babu said he suspected the involvement of PlA in the deadly attack. “This seems to be the work of the PlA, with suspected support by the ‘KYKl’ group also. We are still waiting for more inputs to come in,” he added. KYKl is a Meitei revolutionary organisation in Manipur.
Army sources, however, did not rule out the involvement of the NSCN (K) and said the NSCN faction, which recently abrogated from the ceasefire agreement and intensified its violence against the security forces, might have used the PlA cadres to carry out the attack.
Soon after the abrogation of the ceasefire, the NSCN (K) had carried out at least two ambushes in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in last three months and killed over 10 Army and Assam Rifles jawans. It may be mentioned here that the Northeastern militants like the PlA, the Ulfa anti-talk faction, NSCN (K), NDFB anti-talk faction, the Kamatapuri liberation organisation (KlO) had recently formed a joint forum to fight unitedly against the India Government.
Terming the attack as one of the gravest in the last one decade in the North-East, Army officials said casualties are always high when a moving convoy is ambushed. In this case too, the first two vehicles were blown off by the landmine blast and instantly killing the occupants while the other two vehicles were damaged. Trapped soldiers took some time to come out of these vehicles and return fire, they said adding casualties are less when patrolling is done on foot. If a platoon or company comes under fire, they have more time to regroup and take evasive action, officials explained.