Major, three militants killed in Nagaland encounter

A Major of the Indian Army was killed while three jawans were injured in an encounter with members of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) and ULFA at interior Lappa in Nagaland's Mon district, which shares its borders with Myanmar to the south-east, on Tuesday night.

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Three militants were also killed in the encounter.

The encounter occurred at Lappa, close to the Assam-Nagaland as well as the Indo-Myanmar border and about 33 km from Nagaland’s capital Kohima. The Army team of the 12 Para raided Lappa at around 12.30 am following information that NSCN(K) cadres were moving through that area and an encounter ensued.

Kohima-based Defence spokesman Colonel Chiranjeet Konwer said that the Army officer who was killed was identified as Major David Manlun, an officer of the 164 Brigade of the Territorial Army who was leading the operations. His body was flown to his home in Shillong on Wednesday.

One civilian was killed in the crossfire. He is yet to be identified.   

“The encounter took place when a team of jawans led by Major David Manlun had gone to Lappa, a remote area in Mon district close to the Assam-Nagaland boundary on the basis of specific information about the presence of a group of NSCN (K) and ULFA (I) militants in the area. Even as the Army team launched the search operation, the militants lobbed a grenade and fired at the Army men that resulted in death of the Major,” Colonel Konwer said over the phone from Kohima.

The Army found one AK-56 assault rifle and two Chinese-make AK series rifles, two grenades, three IEDs and 270 live rounds of AK-series ammunition.