IMPHAL, June 7 – People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) militants ambushed an Army post at Khonmunliyan Kuki area at Chandel district in Manipur resulting in heavy exchange of fire, official sources said on Monday, reports PTI. Casualties, if any, on both sides were not immediately known, the sources said. Army personnel were still combing the area after the exchange of fire yesterday, near Sajik Tampak village, to flush out the insurgents.
Suspected PREPAK insurgents had earlier attacked an Army post at Paldai area near the same village on May 5 last but no casualty was reported. The Army had recently opened several posts to flush out insurgents from Sajik Tampak area where several insurgent organisations particularly Manipur People’s Liberation Front (MPLF) had set up their base camps. The troops had taken up positions at Sajik Tampak and adjacent villages to drive out the insurgents from interior and inacessible areas in the Manipur-Myanmar border.
Meanwhile, a caller who identified himself as a spokesman of PREPAK told the local media that the attack on an Army post was carried out by the ‘Red Army’ wing of the outfit. He said its members who took part in the ambush had returned to their camps safely. PREPAK is one of the constituents of MPLF which has been fighting for an ‘independent Manipur’ for over four decades, official sources said, adding that United National Liberation Front and People’s Liberation Army were the other partners of the separatist group.