Flight carrying bodies of slain Assam Rifles personnel makes emergency landing

Guwahati, November 14

A military flight carrying the mortal remains of Assam Rifles personnel and family members of one of them killed in an ambush in Manipur made an emergency landing at Jorhat airport of Assam on Sunday following a technical snag, an Army spokesperson said.

The bodies will be kept at Jorhat overnight and the onward journey for the respective destinations will resume on Monday morning, he added.

Altogether seven people were killed in the ambush in Manipur’s Churachandpur district on Saturday and the bodies had been brought to the state capital Imphal. From there, they were being taken to their homes.

The aircraft was carrying the mortal remains of Col Viplav Tripathi, the Commanding Officer of Khuga Battalion of Assam Rifles, his wife Anuja and six-year-son son Abeer, besides three personnel of the country’s oldest paramilitary force, the spokesperson said.

Col Tripathi was a resident of Raigarh in Chattisgarh.

The body of Rifleman Khatnei Konyak was taken from Imphal by a helicopter to his residence in Mon district of Nagaland.

Of the other three, Riflemen Shyamal Das hailed from Murshidabad district of West Bengal, while Rfn Suman Swargiary and Rfn RP Meena belonged to Baksa district in Assam and Dausa district of Rajasthan respectively, the spokesperson said. PTI