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Army and civilian authorities suspect the involvement of Manipur rebel outfit People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), a Meitei revolutionary organisation, which used landmines, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the attack and termed it mindless and distressing.
“Today’s mindless attack in Manipur is distressing. I bow to each and every soldier who has sacrificed his life for the nation,” he tweeted.
A team of 6 Dogra Regiment was on a road opening patrol (ROP) as part of its daily routine along the Tengnoupal-New Samtal road, about 80 km from Imphal, when it was attacked by an unidentified insurgent outfit, first with a powerful improvised explosive device (IED), a police official said.
After the IED blast, the insurgents resorted to heavy firing at the convoy of four Army vehicles with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and automatic weapons, Army sources said.
“Twenty army men were killed and 11 injured in the attack,” Army spokesperson Rohan Anand said in Delhi.
A suspected insurgent was also killed, police said. The attack occurred around 9 am when the convoy reached a place between Paralong and Charong villages.
“This seems to be the work of PLA, with suspected support by the KYKL group. We are still waiting for more inputs to come in,” Manipur Home Secretary J Suresh Babu said.
However, the Army believes that KYKL was behind the attack. They said the area of attack is about 15-20 km from India-Myanmar border.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar condemned the deadly attack and said those who committed this “cowardly act” would be brought to book.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh directed that no militant involved in the attack should be allowed to go scot free and strongest possible action should be taken against those involved in the ambush.
Defence sources said this was the worst attack on the Army in nearly two decades.
“Such ambushes were only heard of, in Jammu and Kashmir in the mid-90s,” the sources said.
A reinforcement party of the security forces was rushed to the spot for combing operation, to nab the militants.
The injured have been airlifted to Dimapur, Nagaland.
