Mortal remains flown out to respective home towns
Imphal, November 14 (PTI): A massive manhunt is on in the jungles of Churachandpur in Manipur near the border with Myanmar to search for militants belonging to two shadowy outfits who have claimed responsibility for a deadly ambush which killed personnel and family members of the para-military Assam Rifles.
Officials said that the combing operation conducted jointly by Assam Rifles and state police was on in the jungles surrounding the village of Sekhen where the ambush was laid on Saturday.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday said that security along the Myanmar border through which militants are believed to have slipped in and ambushed an Assam Rifles Colonel, his wife, son and four other riflemen, was being beefed up.
The chief minister who laid wreaths on their bodies at Imphal airport, also said the home department and para-military forces had been instructed to bring the militants to justice at the earliest.
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.
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 and son, 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 s personnel were Rifleman (Rfn) Shyamal Das, Rfn Suman Swargiary, Rfn RP Meena and Rfn Khatnei Konyak.
