Army inflicts ‘heavy casualties’ on Naga rebels along Myanmar border

The Army on Wednesday said it inflicted “heavy casualties” on the insurgent group NSCN-K during “retaliatory” fire along the IndiaMyanmar border on the Nagaland side in the early hours of Wednesday.

Asserting that Indian troops “did not cross the international border”, an Eastern Command statement said a column of the Indian Army operating along the IndoMyanmar border was fired upon by unidentified rebels of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) around 4.45 am.

Responding to a question at a Cabinet briefing about the incident, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, “There are no two opinions that Myanmar is a friendly country. Whatever information we get, we will inform you about it.”

Army’s assertion that it was “not a surgical strike” came after an NSCN-K social media post claimed that the firefight happened inside Myanmar. But the Army did not state how many rebels were killed or injured in the incident.

A Facebook post by one Isak Sumi, who is on the ‘Most Wanted List’ of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), said the encounter occurred on the outskirts of Langkhu village located inside Myanmar-occupied Naga area, 10-15 km away from Indo-Myanmar border, around 3 AM when Indian Army approached a makeshift camp of the “elite unit of the Naga Army”.

Sumi, referred to as PRO of NSCN-K by NIA, claimed that the exchange was continuing and said three Indian soldiers were killed and an unconfirmed number injured while stating that his side did not suffer any casualty.

The Army, however, refuted his claims. An Eastern Command tweet read, “Reports of casualties to #IndianArmy personnel factually incorrect. Firefight occurred along Indo-Myanmar border at 0445 hrs today @adgpi.”

The Command also maintained that its troops suffered no casualties during the action, a PTI report said.

“Own troops reacted swiftly and brought down heavily retaliatory fire on insurgents. The insurgents then broke contact and fled from the spot. As per inputs, a large number of casualties were suffered by the insurgents. Own troops suffered no casualties,” the statement added.

In June 2015, the Army had conducted a similar operation against banned insurgent groups following the killing of 20 soldiers in Manipur.