Imphal: You may call it a ‘friendly fire’, or just plain ‘mistaken identity’. As the mortal remains of the two fallen CRPF jawans were brought to their hometowns, more chilling details have emerged on how Kuki militants sneaked into a camp which was supposed to be a “Meitei camp”, but turned out to be a CRPF camp.
Sources said that the main target of those suspected Kuki gunmen was the 2nd Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) HQ, which was manned mostly by “Meiteis”. But due to inclement weather conditions and the dark, these gunmen mistook the CRPF camp as a ‘Meitei camp’ and hurled four Chinese hand grenades and then rained down with bullets from sophisticated weapons.
Two grenades exploded killing two personnel and injuring three others. Later, the two remaining grenades were disposed of by a bomb disposal squad team.
A CRPF officer, who wished not to be named, said that his colleagues saw those gunmen at a distance coming down from the hills that lie on the western side of the camp and assumed that they were either their colleagues or poll officials returning after election duty.
The officer further disclosed that they never thought the Kukis or Meiteis would target them as they are ‘neutral forces’. He added that this could be a pure mistaken identity because of the darkness of the night.
Interestingly, within a few hours after the incident, a host of Kuki CSOs pointed their fingers to VBIGs aka Valley-based insurgent groups, which they normally referred to, as the main culprits behind the incident.
During the incident, Sub Inspector N Sarkar from Barpeta, Assam was declared dead at Bishnupur district hospital. Head Constable Arup Saini from Panchal Village under Sonamukhi Block, Bankura district, West Bengal was declared dead after he was brought to RIMS Hospital. Two other personnel – Inspector Jadav Das and Constable Aftab Hussain were injured.
Meanwhile, a combined team of various security forces including Manipur police launched a massive combing operation in Langchingmanbi and Khoirantak areas, during which three bunkers were destroyed and also recovered four weapons with several cartridges.
In August last year, two villagers were killed and scores injured at Naranseina village by suspected Kuki militants.
On the other hand, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh strongly condemned the assault carried out against the Indian security forces, resulting in the tragic loss of two CRPF personnel in the Naransena area of Bishnupur district.
“Such actions demonstrate cowardice against dedicated security personnel who work tirelessly day and night to uphold peace and stability in the state. Their sacrifice will not go in vain,” the Chief Minister said without mentioning who the culprits were.
