JOIN USA day after the Army suffered a major setback when its 18 troopers of Dogra regiment were killed and 15 other troopers were critically injured in a fierce militant attack in Chandel districts, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag rushed to Imphal and reviewed the security scenario.
The Army has decided to launch a scaled-up operation along the Indo-Myanmar border in the North-East and take the banned militant groups to task.
The Army chief landed at the Imphal airport by a special flight at around 11am along with Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen M M S Rai and GoC 3 Corps chief Lt Gen Bipin Rawat. The Army chief visited the Army base hospital where the injured are being treated at Leimakhong, near Imphal. The Army chief also visited the incident site at Chandel districts.
Later the Army chief took part in a high-level review meeting where all the security agencies operating in Manipur took part including the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police.
Coordination
Although the Army chief refrained to speak to media, sources said that the Army has decided to coordinate with the Assam Rifles that guards the porous Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur and launch a search-and-hit operation as a major crackdown against the banned militants from who have joined hands to launch the attack.
Meanwhile, the Manipur government is coordinating with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the state cabinet met on Friday to take stock of the situation.
“We understand that the militants have safe hideouts in Myanmar and an operation inside Myanmar is not possible right now. So will try scale up targeted operation in the pockets close to the border” said a senior Army official.