At least four CRPF personnel were killed and nine injured in gun-battle with militants in Manipur’s Senapati district on Wednesday.

Police said suspected militants of the proscribed People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) ambushed a convoy of the central paramilitary force on National Highway 53, which links Manipur’s capital town Imphal with Silchar in southern Assam.

The district’s Superintendent of Police (SP) N K Ujwal told Deccan Herald that the PREPAK militants were hiding behind roadside jungles near Keithelmanbi, a hilltop village nearly 50 Kms away from Senapati. They targeted a CRPF convoy that was on its way to Imphal from Kotlen, one of the most remote posts of the paramilitary force in the northeastern state.

“The militants first hurled grenades at the vehicles and then fired at CRPF personnel with automatic weapons. The security-men also retaliated and the gun-battle went on for sometime,” Mr Ujwal said.

Altogether 13 CRPF personnel were injured in the incident. Four of them succumbed to their injuries on way to the hospital. The rest have been admitted to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Imphal.

The SP said additional police and paramilitary personnel were rushed to the scene and a massive combing operation was launched to nab the militants.

The PREPAK is one of the countless militant outfits operating in Manipur’s Imphal Valley.

The outfit’s militants had last Sunday attacked the paramilitary personnel of Assam Rifles (AR) at Umathel in Thoubal district. A soldier was killed and another was injured.

Like the CRPF, the AR too is engaged in combating militancy in the ever-turbulent State.

After the rebel offensive on Sunday, the AR soldiers allegedly went berserk and beat up nearly 45 villagers in a hamlet in the vicinity of the scene of ambush. The incident triggered fresh protest against the security forces’ atrocities on innocent civilians in the state.