Three Assam Rifles personnel were killed and three others injured in an ambush by extremists of the SS Khaplang faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) in Nagaland’s Mon district on Sunday afternoon.
The NSCN-K, however, claimed it killed “six soldiers” and injured as many in the attack near Aboi town bordering Myanmar. The ambush site is about 23km from district headquarters Mon.
Defence officials said a column of the 40 Assam Rifles was fetching water from a stream in a vehicle when the militants detonated an improvised explosive device before opening indiscriminate fire.
“One of the slain soldiers was a havildar who was driving the vehicle. Some of the injured soldiers were airlifted to Assam’s Jorhat town where they are being treated at the military hospital,” an Assam Rifles officer said from the paramilitary forces’ headquarters near Meghalaya capital Shillong.
‘Colonel’ Isak Sumi, deputy minister of NSCN-K, said in statement that the attack was part of the outfit’s ongoing “summer offensive to sanitise the land against illegal deployment of occupational Indian forces and rein in their illegal activities, provocative movements, perpetration of terror and disturbance of peace and tranquillity in the Naga country”.
Mr. Sumi also claimed the NSCN-K killed two Assam Rifles personnel manning a post at Shengha Lampong in Mon district a few days ago. With Sunday’s attack, the outfit said it killed “eight Indian soldiers” within a week.
“A major of Assam Rifles was injured in last week’s attack,” Mr. Sumi said. The NSCN-K had in March 2015 walked out of a 14-year-old ceasefire with the Central government. It has in coordination with other outfits such as United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent been attacking the security forces. The worst of such attacks had killed 18 Army personnel in Manipur’s Chandel district in 2015.
