One CDO killed, five hurt in gunfight with militants
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, May 11 2023: At least one member of Bishnupur district police commando (CDO) was killed and five others left injured after some heavily armed unknown persons suspected to be cadres of a So0 group fired at CDO teams at Tron-glaobi Maning Leikai and Terakhongsangbi Maning Leikai under Moirang PS in Bishnupur district around 7 am Thursday.

The deceased has been identified as Heisnam Jiten Singh (40) s/o Yaima of Thanga Heisnam Leikai.

He was a ri-fleman (No.05197150) of 5 MR, attached to CDO/BPR.

Jiten sustained gunshot wound on the right side of his abdomen.

The injured personnel have been identified as constable Md Islammudin (54) s/o Md Mufi of Thoubal Moijing Khongkhok Leikai; constable Yendrenbam Shital Meitei alias Ketan (32) s/o Surjit of Kakch-ing Ningthou Leikai; constable Md Raja Haq (44) s/o Yusuf Ali of Yairipok Changamdabi Maning Leikai; SI N Nanda-lal Singh and SI H Haridas.

One CDO killed, five hurt in gunfight with militants

Islammudin sustained two bullet injuries on his back and is admitted at RIMS Hospi-tal, while constables Shital suffered a gunshot on his nose and Md Raja Haq on his left wrist, both undergoing treatment at Raj Medicity.

The other two personnel are said to have been evacuated to Moirang Hospital.

According to a police re-port, on receiving reliable input about presence of some armed Kuki militants in the hillocks on the western side of Terakhongsangbi Maning Leikai located at the border of Bishnupur and Churachand-pur districts, teams of CDO/ BPR entered the area and took positions while also searching for the militants.

Around 7 am, Kuki militants hiding in a newly built bunker near the hill fired several rounds at the CDO teams from two directions which the CDO teams retaliated.

On receiving news of the gunfight additional teams of CDO/BPR rushed to the location and fired back at the militants.

The CDO team also fired a mortar shell at the militants.

During the ex-change, one of the commando personnel was killed, while five others were injured.

An Assam Rifles team, after hear-ing news of the incident, also arrived at the location and rescued both deceased and injured personnel.

The AR personnel then took over the positions of the CDO teams.

After the deceased and injured personnel were evacuated via ambulances, the body of deceased Jiten was kept at RIMS Morgue for post mortem examination, while the injured personnel are admitted at Moirang Hospital, Raj Medicity and RIMS Hospital, the report added.

The report further conveyed that there may have been several injuries amongst the militants as the bunkers were destroyed in mortar shelling by the CDO teams.

However, as per another report, neither the AR nor the state police carried out any operation to drive out the militants camping at the bunkers in the area, following the attack on the CDO/BPR personnel.

Thursday's militant attack took place within less than 24 hours after Kuki ex-tremists fired upon an Army and Assam Rifles team at Dolaithabi in Imphal East district, injuring an Assam Rifles jawan, when the security personnel were on an area domination patrolling.

Defence sources had said that armed militants after firing few rounds, ran away.

The injured Assam Rifles jawan, who sus-tained gunshot injury in the firing, was safely evacuated to the military hospital by an Army helicopter.

Manipur witnessed unprecedented vio-lent clashes, attacks, counter attacks and arson of houses, vehicles and government and private properties in more than 10 districts during and after 'Tribal Solidarity March' called by the All Tribal Students' Union of Manipur (ATSUM) to oppose the demand for inclusion of the Meitei com-munity in the Scheduled Tribe category.

However, the overall situation in the ethnic violence-hit Manipur improved further on Thursday with the authorities relaxing curfew in 11 districts, includ-ing Imphal West and Churachandpur, for four to eight hours in the morning even as the Army and central paramilitary forces continued their vigil in the sensitive areas.

In all, 128 columns of the Army and As-sam Rifles continued flag marches in the tension-ridden and violence-hit areas in different districts.

The central forces also undertook round-the-clock aerial surveillance using drones and choppers.

A defence release on Wednesday said that the Indian Army's three-pronged domination strategy in Manipur is helping the state return to normalcy.

It added that the Army is leaving no stone unturned in monitoring the troubled areas, not only in the hinterland, but also along the In-dia-Myanmar border.