The Sepcial Forces of the Army on Tuesday carried out two operations against militants in the North-east along the International Border with Myanmar and inflicted “significant casualties” on them. This action came five days after a group of NSCN(K), KYKl and KlA ambushed an Army convoy in Chandel district of Manipiur and killed 18 soldiers.
While Army officials refrained from giving out the number of casualties, unconfirmed reports said that in surgical strikes the Special Forces commandos killed about 15 insurgents of the groups believed to be responsible for the deadly Manipur ambush. The Army suffered no casualties. The strikes were carried out by commandos in coordination with Myanmarese authorities on specific intelligence inputs. Self-styled kilonser (Minister) of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (K) Starson lamkang is reported to be among those seriously injured.
Officially, the Army said the two operations in Nagaland and Manipur were conducted in the early hours of Tuesday after the Army got “credible and specific intelligence” that the militants were planning more attacks “within our territory.”
Giving details about the pre-emptive strikes, Additional Director-General Military Operations (DGMO) Major-General Ranbir Singh said they were the same group of militants who were involved in earlier attacks on security forces. The NSCN(K), which ended a 14-year ceasefire agreement with the Central Government in April this year, has so far killed 30 Army and Assam Rifles soldiers in three attacks in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur in the last two months. This group has claimed responsibility for all the three attacks.
The Army has so far recovered four bodies of militants killed in the retaliatory fire by the soldiers after the ambush. Singh said after receiving the intelligence inputs, an immediate “response was necessary.” Based on real-time information, the Army conducted operations to counter these planned assaults, he said, adding the Army engaged two separate groups of insurgents along the India-Myanmar border at two locations along the Nagaland and Manipur borders.
“We have inflicted significant casualties on them. As a consequence, threats to our civilian population and security forces were averted,” he told reporters.
The ADGMO also said the Army was in communication with Myanmar authorities on the issue and looked forward to working with them to combat such terrorism.
He, however, refused to take questions from the media and the Army did not specify the number of terrorists killed and the specific area where the operations were conducted. Moreover, the officials did not clarify if the operations took place on the Indian side of the International Border or the Army commandos raided terrorist training camps across the border in Myanmar as part of hot pursuit.
Officials maintained that the Myanmar Government and the Army were kept in the loop. Following the ambush, the Army, along with paramilitary, has launched a massive offensive against the militants in Nagaland and Manipur by stepping aggressive patrolling, seek and destroy missions and area domination exercises in militant strongholds. This exercise is aimed to deny time and space to the insurgents to operate.