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IMPHAL: Suspected Kuki militants shot and killed a BSF sentry and wounded two Assam Rifles personnel in separate attacks at Serou in Manipur’s Kakching early Tuesday, two days after arsonists torched a Congress MLA’s private residence along with several other homes in the district and heavily armed assailants engaged in mortar combat with security forces.
The slain constable, 41-year-old Ranjit Yadav from Bhatpara in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas, was part of a unit of the BSF’s 163 Battalion deployed at a school in Serou when the militants struck. Ranjit’s colleagues retaliated after he was fatally shot, but the militants managed to flee following a gunfight that lasted some time.
In the day’s other attack at Serou, two personnel from the Assam Rifles’ 37 Battalion were struck by bullets fired by suspected militants perched on a hillock, officials said. Both were hospitalised in Imphal, around 69km from Serou. One of them was later airlifted to a Kolkata hospital after his condition turned critical.
A combing operation following the firing yielded two Kalashnikov rifles, a 51mm mortar, two carbines and an ammunition dump. Additional forces have been deployed in the neighbourhood as part of an area-domination exercise to foil possible arson and firing on civilians and security forces, an official said.
Serou and its nearby foothills have been the scene of multiple gunfights between security forces and suspected militants since the Kuki-Meitei conflict blew up on May 3. Union home minister Amit Shah recently blamed the “verdict of a court” for the flare-up, referring to the Manipur high court’s order to the state government to consider the Meitei community’s demand for ST status.
“My humble tributes to Ranjit Yadav, 163 Bn, BSF, who laid down his life during an exchange of gunfire at Serou, Kakching district…May his soul rest in peace,” chief minister N Biren Singh said.
Ranjit was the lone earning member of his family of seven, including a sister who is blind, his wife and the couple’s eight-year-old son. “He was spirited since childhood and aspired to join the Army. When he got a job in the BSF in 2008, he jumped at the opportunity,” said. Akhtar Mazid alias Munna, the president of the local ward commitee in his hometown.
The slain constable, 41-year-old Ranjit Yadav from Bhatpara in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas, was part of a unit of the BSF’s 163 Battalion deployed at a school in Serou when the militants struck. Ranjit’s colleagues retaliated after he was fatally shot, but the militants managed to flee following a gunfight that lasted some time.
In the day’s other attack at Serou, two personnel from the Assam Rifles’ 37 Battalion were struck by bullets fired by suspected militants perched on a hillock, officials said. Both were hospitalised in Imphal, around 69km from Serou. One of them was later airlifted to a Kolkata hospital after his condition turned critical.
A combing operation following the firing yielded two Kalashnikov rifles, a 51mm mortar, two carbines and an ammunition dump. Additional forces have been deployed in the neighbourhood as part of an area-domination exercise to foil possible arson and firing on civilians and security forces, an official said.
Serou and its nearby foothills have been the scene of multiple gunfights between security forces and suspected militants since the Kuki-Meitei conflict blew up on May 3. Union home minister Amit Shah recently blamed the “verdict of a court” for the flare-up, referring to the Manipur high court’s order to the state government to consider the Meitei community’s demand for ST status.
“My humble tributes to Ranjit Yadav, 163 Bn, BSF, who laid down his life during an exchange of gunfire at Serou, Kakching district…May his soul rest in peace,” chief minister N Biren Singh said.
Ranjit was the lone earning member of his family of seven, including a sister who is blind, his wife and the couple’s eight-year-old son. “He was spirited since childhood and aspired to join the Army. When he got a job in the BSF in 2008, he jumped at the opportunity,” said. Akhtar Mazid alias Munna, the president of the local ward commitee in his hometown.
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