Manipur CM wants unfenced stretches at Myanmar border fixed

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday stressed on fencing the unfenced stretches of the 390-kms long border it shares with Myanmar as he paid tributes to the Assam Rifles Colonel, his family and the four jawans who were killed by militants near the border on Saturday.

"The unfenced portions of the border is used by militants and so we have told the Centre that these stretches needs to be bridged. Already work for fencing 40-kms border is underway but the same has remained stalled due to border disputes with Myanmar in some areas. But work in some areas are underway," Singh said after paying his tribute to the martyrs at Imphal airport.

The mortal remains of Colonel Viplav Tripathi, his wife Anuja, six-year-old son, Abeer and four jawans were flown to their homes before army, police and other officials, apart from the Chief Minister paid their tributes.

Read more: Manipur attack: Mortal remains of Assam Rifles personnel to head to their homes

The seven were killed by militants belonging to People's Liberation Army and Manipur Naga People's Front in an amnush at Tinghat, about 50-km from Churanchandpur district headquarters.

Tripathi was a son of senior journalist in Raigarh in Chattisgarh while four other jawans, Suman Swargiary, Khatnei Konyal, RP Meena and Shyamlal Das hailed from Assam, Nagaland, Rajasthan and West Bengal respectively.

Singh had earlier suspected that the militants could have sneaked into Manipur from Myanmar and fled to their hideouts after committing the incident. "Let me assure you that those who were behind the attack will be brought to justice. This is a dastardly terror attack on our soldiers, a woman and a small child. This can not be tolerated," he said.

Army, paramilitary forces and Manipur police commandos had launched a manhunt for the militants in the interior areas along Indo-Myanmar border but received no breakthrough yet.

Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh shares the 1,643-km-long border with Myanmar but militants and cross border criminals often use the unfenced areas to carry out unlawful activities.