DIMAPUR, May 4 � The NSCN (K) has claimed responsibility for the killing of eight security personnel in Mon district of Nagaland.
Seven Assam Rifles jawans, besides another jawan of Naga (TA) Battalion were killed in two separate ambushes by NSCN(K) cadres between Changlangshu and Tobu town in Mon district on Sunday. Nine other jawans were injured, some of them critically, in the ambush.
According to reports, the NSCN(K) has confirmed that its cadres had ambushed the Assam Rifles team and killed eight jawans and injuring several others. The reports said the NSCN (K) also claimed that its cadres managed to take away three guns from the Assam Rifles party after the ambush. It also denied that anyone from its side suffered any casualty or injury.
On April 25, the NSCN(K) also claimed responsibility for killing of one Assam Rifles jawan in Kohima. The NSCN(K) had withdrawn from the 14 year-old ceasefire signed with the Government of India on March 27, 2001, on the ground that any �meaningful peace and political interaction� between the two entities should be premised on the concept that Nagas were a sovereign people.
On Sunday at around 2.45 pm, the Assam Rifles personnel in a truck were escorting a tanker to fetch water from Changlangshu to Tobu town when the militants ambushed them. Three jawans died on the spot. On learning of the ambush, a reinforcement party of the Assam Rifles rushed to the spot where the NSCN(K) cadres launched the second ambush.
Five jawans were killed in the second ambush. The Assam Rifles reinforcement party reportedly retaliated in which one NSCN(K) cadre reportedly was killed. According to Defence sources, the slain NSCN(K) cadre was identified as one Ngamwang Konyak. He was wearing a Naga military uniform.
According to the sources, NSCN(K) blasted the Tata 407 truck carrying the Assam Rifles party, with an IED planted on the road. The truck was badly damaged in the impact. It was also stated that the NSCN(K) cadres decamped with three weapons belonging to the slain jawans. Village Guard (VG) and village elders of Changlangshu along with district officials rushed to the spot to assist in retrieving the bodies of the slain soldiers.
Mon DC Honje Konyak along with SP Imsusangba Sangtam also rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. After the ambush, a massive search operation was launched in the area to nab the militants. On May 1, four NSCN(K) cadres were killed by security personnel in Tamenglong district of Manipur.
