Colonel, family, among 7 killed in Manipur ambush

Imphal: A commanding officer of the Assam Rifles, his wife and son, besides four personnel of the country’s oldest paramilitary were killed on Saturday in a welter of IED blasts and burst of gunfire in Manipur’s Churachandpur district, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said.

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.

The incident is the first major attack on security forces since June 4, 2018 when an Army convoy was similarly targeted in Chandel district resulting in the death of 18 personnel and injury to others.

The state that was for decades in the throes of insurgency was largely calm ever since.

On Saturday, Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) burst on a hill road, shattering the tenuous peace in Manipur, before the Assam Rifles personnel engaged the militants in a do-or-die firefight.

Bullets rained in a torrent from hilltops covered in foliage as security personnel ducked for cover and fired from behind trees and boulders. (PTI)