Army troops, insurgents exchange gunfire along Manipur-Myanmar border

An Indian Army patrol team and unidentified insurgents exchanged heavy gunfire along the international border in Manipur early Wednesday, intelligence sources said. There was no report of any casualty on either side.

The army personnel were on patrol along the international border with Myanmar when they had a chance encounter with the insurgents near Mingtha at 3 a.m., the sources told IANS.

The gunfight continued for a long time after which the insurgents are believed to have escaped into the mountainous rain forest.

The latest shootout comes in the wake of an ambush on Sunday at Joupi in the border district of Chandel, in which six personnel of 29 Assam Rifles were killed.

The insurgents of the Corcom, an apex body of six proscribed underground organisations, had escaped with six sophisticated weapons.

Meanwhile, no underground organisation has so far claimed responsibility for Sunday's ambush.

On June 4 last year, insurgents of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) and some other militant organisations had ambushed a patrol party of 6 Dogra Regiment in the district, killing 18 soldiers and wounding 14 others.

--IANS

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