IMPHAL,AUG,.13(PTI): In a series of insurgency related  incidents on eight persons including six Indian army personnel, were killed and eight others seriously injured in the sensitive Ukhrul and Imphal districts in the northeastern state of Manipur.

Official sources said that activists of the banned national socialist council of Nagaland (Muivah faction), who are demanding formation of ‘southern Nagaland’ by carving out four hill districts of Manipur, ambushed an army convoy at Namthilok area in Ukhrul district late Thursday night killing six soldiers on the spot and injuring five others.

The incident occurred while the army column was rushing from Mahadev army post to New Haven area in district following reports of an attack on a Manipur rifles post by NSCN activists at around 1830 hours.

As the column entered the Namthilok turning point on the hills, about 35kms east of here on Imphal Ukhrul road, the activists sprayed bullets at them from one side of a hillock and made good their escape under the cover of darkness, the sources said.

What caused “serious concern” among the law enforcing agencies was the simultaneous attack at three different places in Ukhrul district by the NSCN activists.

A few minutes before the attack of the army column, the activists Opened fire at six passenger buses at Litan area in the district killing one Civilian on the spot and injuring three others.

In Imphal district, the civil police shot dead an activist of the banned people’s liberation army at Keisampat area here.

Indian army retaliates

The army and paramilitary forces on Friday launched a massive combing operation in Manipur after eight persons, including six soldiers, were killed in separate insurgency related incidents on Thursday.

Official sources said the operation being conducted by the army and Assam riffles, the country’s oldest paramilitary organization, was restricted to the Imphal and Ukhrul districts of the hilly north eastern state, where activists of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN)  Muivah faction  ambushed an army convoy killing six soldiers on the spot on Thursday.

The condition of two of the five injured Jawans was stated to be serious, the sources said. Thursday’s ambush by the NSCN was the second in the last one and half months in Manipur, On June 29 last the NSCN(M) activists at tacked an army convoy and gunned down 26 Jawans at Tengnoupal area in Chandel district bordering Myanmar,

Around the time of the NSCN attack on the men in Olive Green on Thursday, suspected Kukis (local tribal) opened fire at six passenger buses in Ukhrul district, killing One civilian and injuring three others, The civilian was a Tangkhul Naga.

Describing the attack as “most unfortunate” official sources said it was intended to divide the hill people from those in the valley. ‘The sources said one more battalion of the central reserve police force had arrived in Manipur and would be deployed in addition to the present strength to contain the intertribal clashes in the state, which have claimed the lives of more than 40 Kukis in the last 10 days.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 27, 1993