2 Assam Rifles troopers injured in gunfight with Naga militant group

Kohima: Two Assam Rifles (AR) troopers were injured on Monday in a fierce gunfight with members of the suspected KYA faction of the NSCN militant group in Nagaland’s Mon district, a top defence official confirmed.

Defence spokesman Lt. Col. Mahendra Rawat said that based on credible intelligence inputs of movement of NSCN-KYA cadres in Nyasa area, AR laid multiple ambushes to dominate the area.

“In the wee hours, the alert troops noticed suspicious movement of militants on a jungle track coming from Zankham to Nyasa. On being challenged by the troops, the guerillas opened fire which was befittingly retaliated causing severe casualties to the outlawed group,” he said.

Further details are awaited as the operation is still going on.

Lt. Col. Rawat said that the injured troopers have been evacuated to the Jorhat Air Force hospital in Assam for treatment.

The Nyasa area is situated along the inter-state boundary between Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

In a similar action, eight top cadres of the banned militant outfit People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were arrested from four districts of Manipur and their attempt to create violence ahead of the Independence Day was foiled.

A defence spokesman said that to thwart PLA’s nefarious design to disrupt the 75th Independence Day celebrations in Manipur, the AR along with Manipur Police launched a series of intelligence-based joint operations from August 11 to 13 and foiled major sabotage activities.

Banned militant outfits United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) and NSCN (K-YA) had earlier called for a ‘total boycott’ of the celebrations of India’s 75th Independence Day in five northeastern states — Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, and Meghalaya.

In a joint statement, the militant outfits had told people “at all levels” not to participate in all forms of ‘fake’ Independence Day activities.

“Our protest calling for a boycott of the fake Independence Day of colonial India will be a total shutdown on August 15,” the statement said.IANS