Manipur attack: Combing operations on for militants, border security to be beefed up

Imphal, Nov 14 (PTI) Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday said that security along the Myanmar border through which militants who ambushed Assam Rifles personnel and family members are believed to have slipped in, would be beefed up.

The chief minister who laid wreaths on the bodies of an Assam Rifles Colonel, his wife, son and four other riflemen at Imphal airport, also said the home department and para-military forces had been instructed to bring the militants before justice at the earliest.

Officials said that a massive combing operation conducted jointly by the para-military Assam Rifles and state police was on in the jungles surrounding the village of Sekhen where the ambush was laid on Saturday.

Two militant groups - People's Liberation Army and the Manipur Naga People's Front -had on Saturday jointly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Speaking to media-persons after the wreath laying ceremony, Singh said "the government will not tolerate such terrorist activities in the state" and added that security along the border areas of the state would be increased.

Strongly condemning the "horrifying ambush" on the Assam Rifles convoy, he said he has instructed the Home Department and para military forces to "arrest and punish the perpetrators" according to the rule of law.

The mortal remains of Col Viplav Tripathi, his family and Assam rifles personnel, who lost their lives in the terror attack in Manipur on Saturday have been flown out to their respective home towns.

Col Tripathi, the Commanding Officer of Khuga Battalion of Assam Rifles, his wife Anuja and son Abeer, besides four personnel of the country's oldest paramilitary force were killed on Saturday in a welter of IED blasts and gunfire in Manipur's Churachandpur district.

The four Assam Rifles personnel killed in the attack were Rifleman (Rfn) Shyamal Das, Rfn Suman Swargiary, Rfn RP Meena and Rfn Khatnei Konyak.

Col Tripathi was a resident of Raigarh in Chattisgarh. Rfn Das was a resident of Murshidabad in West Bengal and Rfn Swargiary belonged to Baksa district in Assam. Rfn Konyak was from Mon district in Nagaland, while Rfn Meena was a resident of Dausa district in Rajasthan. PTI CORR SOM JRC JRC