A security man from Assam’s Baksa district was among the seven persons including a Commanding Officer and four Assam Rifles jawans killed in the ambush triggered by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) militants in Manipur on Saturday.
The slain Assam Rifles jawan has been identified as Suman Swargiyari and hailed from Thaikarakuchi in Lower Assam’s Baksa district.
Colonel Viplav Tripathi, the Commanding Officer of Khuga Battalion of Assam Rifles, his wife, and his six-year-old son, besides four personnel of the force were killed in the attack at Thinghat in Churachandpur district close to the Myanmar border.
Four Assam Rifles personnel were also injured in the attack, which took place around 11 am when the victims were returning from a visit to a forward camp in the Singhat sub-division of the district.
The militants first triggered an IED blast followed by indiscriminate firing, official sources said.
Manipur’s two banned rebel outfits– People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Manipur Naga People’s Front (MNPF) claimed responsibility for the attack.
Another Assam Rifles personnel killed in the attack has been identified as Rifleman Khatnei Konyak.
The AR jawan hailed from Zangkham village in Mon district of Nagaland
Khatnei, who married last year, leaves behind his wife and a kid.
Meanwhile, Colonel Viplav Tripathi’s younger brother Anay Tripathi is also posted in Manipur with the Assam Rifles as a Lieutenant Colonel.
On Friday night, Anay arrived at Raigarh, driving down from Manipur on his way to Mhow, for training, Indian Express reported.
One week ago, Colonel Viplav Tripathi’s parents Subhash Tripathi, 80, and Asha Tripathi, 70, had visited Manipur to meet their sons during Diwali.
The Assam Rifles officer’s father Subhash Tripathi is a senior journalist and editor of a regional weekly based at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh.