JCO injured in attack on an Assam Rifles patrol near India-Myanmar border

|HT|

A junior commissioned officer (JCO) was injured in an attack on an Assam Rifles patrol at Tirap near the India-Myanmar border in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang around 3am on Tuesday and triggered an exchange of fire that lasted for around half an hour, officials aware of the matter said. Public relations officer (defence) Lt Col A S Walia said the patrol was fired upon from across the border when Assam Rifles troops were undertaking enhanced patrolling activities in view of heightened vigil ahead of the Independence Day celebrations. “One JCO sustained minor injury in hand. No injury or any other damage reported.” Walia added enhanced surveillance will continue.

Officials aware of the matter cited initial probe and added it suggested the role of United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) and the Yung Aung faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang)-(NSCN-KYA) in the attack.

The attack came three days after the two groups, which have camps in Myanmar, called for a shutdown in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya on August 15 and urged people against participating in “fake Independence Day activities”.

In a statement on Saturday, the groups cited a decline in standards of living and an economic slowdown following the Covid pandemic and added it was “worthless” to celebrate Independence Day. “It is unfair, historically irrelevant and worthless for a state, which is unable to stand by the suffering problem in such a time of declining living standards to celebrate the 76th pretentious Independence Day,” the statement said.

An official in Changlang, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the JCO sustained injury probably from splinters of a grenade and that there was retaliatory firing and the cross-fire lasted for around 30 minutes. The attackers fled from the scene but a counter-offensive to trace them has not been launched yet due to the difficult terrain.

There were reports of a similar attack on another Assam Rifles patrol near the Myanmar border in Nagaland’s Noklak district around the same time but the Army said the incident was yet to be corroborated.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)