Soldier killed in Manipur bomb blasts

Imphal: A member of the Assam Rifles has been killed and one injured after two Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded in Lilong Usoipokpi Sangomsang, Thoubal district, in the hilly areas near the southern part of Manipur. The dead soldier has been identified as rifleman L.Wangchu (30) who was from Arunachal Pradesh.

The blasts took place when troops of the 16 battalion of the Assam Rifles were patrolling in the hilly area of the southern part of the state and few para-military soldiers were resting near a water supply pump, the police said. According to police reports, the IED was placed in such a way as to explode near the pump which was often used by soldiers.

Injured soldier Pinku Das was shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment. The blasts come a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Manipur as part of his campaigning for the BJP in the forthcoming elections, as well as inaugurating development projects worth ₹4815 crore in the state.

Security forces, including the army and Assam Rifles, are on high alert, especially after the deadliest terror attack in the region on November 13 in which an Assam Rifles Colonel, his wife and son, and four personnel of the para-military force were killed in Churachandpur district bordering Myanmar.

The attack was claimed by Manipur's People's Liberation Army and Manipur Naga People's Front.

There have been intensified terror attacks since then, as tensions escalate just before the Assembly Elections due to be held months from now. The bomb blast at Thoubal is the fourth such blast in little over a month's time to take place in Manipur, although no one was killed in the earlier blasts.

Security officials have noted a pattern in the blasts which were usually detonated at night and often caused property damage. The earlier three incidents on November 18, December 15 and 29 last year. No terror group or radical outfit has claimed credit for the blasts and security forces have yet to identify the culprits.