In the first major attack on Army personnel this year in Manipur, insurgents today exploded a powerful remote-controlled bomb, killing one jawan and injuring three others in interior Churachandpur district.
The banned Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) claimed responsibility of the attack, officials said.
The bomb, attached to a roadside culvert, went off at about 6.40 am when personnel of Gorkha Rifles were on patrol duty in the area. A sniffer dog of the army was also killed in the blast, they said.
The dead jawan was identified as Kailash and the injured as Lance Naik Sushil Kumar, Amit Tamang and Raj Bahadur. The condition of the injured was serious, the officials said.
Soon after the incident, security personnel cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.
However, no arrest has been made so far, the officials said, adding that the attackers used the jungle and hilly terrain to their advantage and managed to flee.
In another incident, a powerful bomb planted near the office of the Border Road Task Force at Lamphel area in Imphal West district was recovered during the day and was later defused, they said.
