Manipur: Militants attack Manipur police commandos inside barracks, four injured

In an incident of fresh violence in strife-torn Manipur, militants attacked Manipur police commandos inside their barracks in the border town of Moreh on Saturday night, during which they also fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), officials aware of the matter said.

The barracks were damaged in the attack and four commandos sustained minor injuries. The attack within hours of the militants targeting another unit of the Manipur police commandos travelling on the Imphal-Moreh highway. A commando sustained splinter injuries when the convoy came under heavy fire around 3.45 pm on Saturday.

“The situation was under control after the afternoon incident. But around midnight, militants fired the RPG and heavy gunfire to attack the commandos sleeping inside the barrack at around midnight. Four of them sustained minor injuries. One of them may have sustained injuries in his ear because of the blast of the explosives,” an official said.

The four commandos were rushed to the nearby hospital of the Assam Rifles. As per the officials, the militants were hiding in the hills and used the cover of the night to engage in firing at the barracks for almost half an hour. Subsequently, top officials of the Assam Rifles have flown to Moreh, a town near India-Myanmar border. The town has been on high alert since Saturday afternoon.

The nearly one-month-long peace in ethnic strife-torn Manipur was punctuated on Saturday morning when a gunfight broke out between Meitei and Kuki village volunteers, in which one person died. Before Saturday, 13 people were killed in a gunfight in Tengnoupal district on December 4.