IMPHAL, December 21: Troops of 26 Assam Rifles reportedly gunned down a militant suspect during a fierce gun battle last night along the Indo-Myanmar border, Churachandpur district.
Sources said that the shoot-out between 26 Assam Rifles and some cadres of an armed group occurred yesterday evening at Suangphu, Behiang under Singhat police station and lasted till this morning.
According to a PIB (Defence Wing) statement, a border patrol party comprising of troops of Red Shield Division was moving towards BP 39 to carry out routine border patrol.
It said at around 6:15 pm hours when the party was near Suangpho village, approximate 1.7 km south west of Beheng, the patrol party came under effective fire of the insurgents.
The party returned fire and killed one insurgent, it said adding that subsequently the area was cordoned and a search was conducted.
The dead insurgent was wearing a combat dress and a Rifle Grenade MG-2, fired rounds of AK-47 and an HD cartridge were recovered from him, it said.
Meanwhile, it is also learnt that a powerful IED exploded at the Hiangtam area when reinforcement team of the AR was heading towards the encounter site.
However, no human casualty was reported during the blast.
A team of the concerned police station led by its OC had also rushed to the spot till the filing of this report.