Counter-insurgency ops still on after 10 militants killed by Assam Rifles in Chandel

IMPHAL: Counter-insurgency operations were still underway on Thursday afternoon after the Assam Rifles gunned down 10 militants in an encounter in southern Manipur’s Chandel district, which shares borders with Myanmar, officials said.

Officials in Imphal said that the Assam Rifles unit under Spear Corps launched an operation on Wednesday, and the counter-insurgency operations are still continuing in the mountainous terrain of Chandel district, 130 km from the state capital, which has scant human habitation.

Security forces in the past 24 hours arrested seven ultras belonging to various banned militant outfits from different districts of Manipur.

The Indian Army’s Eastern Command earlier said that acting on specific intelligence on the movement of armed cadres near New Samtal village, Khengjoy Tehsil, under Chandel district along the India-Myanmar border, Assam Rifles troops under Spear Corps launched an operation on Wednesday.

“During the operation, the troops were fired upon by suspected cadres, to which they quickly reacted, redeployed and retaliated in a calibrated and measured manner. In the ensuing firefight, 10 cadres were neutralised, and a sizeable quantity of arms and ammunition has been recovered,” the Army’s Eastern Command said in a post on the X handle.

The identities of the slain militants have not yet been disclosed. The operation marks a major blow to insurgent activities in the mountainous region of the trouble-torn Manipur.

Hilly Chandel is inhabited by tribals of different ethnic groups, including Nagas. Thursday’s operation against the militants is one of the major counter-insurgency operations after the ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, 2023, between the non-tribal Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribals. (IANS)

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