Manipur attack: Combing operations on for militants, border security to be augmented

Imphal: A massive manhunt is on in the jungles of Churachandpur in Manipur near the border with Myanmar to search for militants belonging to two shadowy outfits who have claimed responsibility for a deadly ambush which killed personnel and family members of the para-military Assam Rifles. Officials said that the combing operation conducted jointly by Assam Rifles and state police was on in the jungles surrounding the village of Sekhen where the ambush was laid on Saturday. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday said that security along the Myanmar border through which militants are believed to have slipped in and ambushed an Assam Rifles Colonel, his wife, son and four other riflemen, was being beefed up. The chief minister who laid wreaths on their bodies at Imphal airport, also said the home department and para-military forces had been instructed to bring the militants to justice at the earliest. Two militant groups - People’s Liberation Army and the Manipur Naga People’s Front -had on Saturday jointly claimed responsibility for the attack. Officials said the two groups one of which had been dormant for several years, while the other is little known of, had chosen their target carefully and were likely trying to make their way back to base camps in Myanmar. Speaking to media-persons after the wreath laying ceremony, Singh said “the government will not tolerate such terrorist activities in the state” and added that security along the border areas of the state would be increased. Strongly condemning the “horrifying ambush” on the Assam Rifles convoy, he said he has instructed the Home Department and para military forces to “arrest and punish the perpetrators” according to the rule of law. The mortal remains of Col Viplav Tripathi, his family and Assam rifles personnel, who lost their lives in the terror attack in Manipur on Saturday have been flown out to their respective home towns. Col Tripathi, the Commanding Officer of Khuga Battalion of Assam Rifles, his wife Anuja and son Abeer, besides four personnel of the country’s oldest paramilitary force were killed on Saturday in a welter of IED blasts and gunfire in Manipur’s Churachandpur district. The four Assam Rifles personnel killed in the attack were Rifleman (Rfn) Shyamal Das, Rfn Suman Swargiary, Rfn RP Meena and Rfn Khatnei Konyak. Col Tripathi was a resident of Raigarh in Chattisgarh. Rfn Das was a resident of Murshidabad in West Bengal and Rfn Swargiary belonged to Baksa district in Assam. Rfn Konyak was from Mon district in Nagaland, while Rfn Meena was a resident of Dausa district in Rajasthan.