First arrests made for Manipur ambush that killed Colonel, his kin
IMPHAL: Two terrorists of the proscribed Peoples’ Liberation Army Manipur and Kangleipak Communist Party have been arrested days after five soldiers, including a colonel, his wife and their eight-yearold son, were killed and six personnel were injured in an ambush.
The attack took place on November 13, when armed militants ambushed an Assam Rifles convoy near the porous India-Myanmar border in Manipur’s Churachandpur district.
The commanding officer of the 46 Assam Rifles, Colonel Viplav Tripathi, and his quick reaction team (QRT) were returning from the Behiang border post and heading to the battalion headquarters at Khuga when the militants ambushed them at S Sehken village under Singhat sub-division at around 11am, said one of the officials cited above. Apart from Tripathi, his wife Anuja and son Abeer; Riflemen NK Nayak, Suman Swargiary, RP Meena and Shyamal Das were killed in the planned attack. Family members of soldiers being hit by insurgents is a rarity and has sent shock waves through the military community.
The Revolutionary People’s
Front (RPF), a group under which PLA Manipur operates, later claimed responsibility for the ambush, but said it wasn’t aware of the presence of family members in the convoy. The RPF statement added that family members should not be moving around in a disturbed area.
In a tweet, Assam Rifles said the two terrorists were arrested in joint separate operations with the Manipur Police in Thoubal and Imphal East districts on Monday.
These are the first arrests since Saturday’s ambush in the Churachandpur district of Manipur. Eight Assam Rifles’ soldiers were also injured in the incident.
The ambush came at a time when the security situation in the Northeast had improved significantly in the army’s assessment, and a planned and gradual drawdown of soldiers was underway there.
It is seen as an attempt by insurgents to re-establish their relevance. Security forces launched a massive manhunt for the insurgents who carried out the ambush.