Army inflicts huge toll on NSCN (K) at Myanmar border

New Delhi: The Army said that it inflicted "heavy casualties" on the insurgent group NSCN (K) during "retaliatory" fire along the India-Myanmar border on the Nagaland side in the early hours on Wednesday. The Eastern Command of the Army also maintained that its troops suffered no casualties during the action.

According to a statement by the Eastern Command, a column of the Indian Army operating along the Indo-Myanmar border was fired upon by unidentified rebels of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) around 4.45 am. "Own troops reacted swiftly and brought down heavily retaliatory fire on insurgents. The insurgents then broke contact and fled from the spot. As per inputs, a large number of casualties were suffered by the insurgents. Own troops suffered no casualties," the statement added. It, however, did not tell about the number of insurgents killed or injured in the attack. The Army also asserted that Indian troops "did not cross the international border". Responding to a question at a cabinet briefing abut the incident, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, "There are no two opinions that Myanmar is a friendly country. Whatever information we get, we will inform you about it."

Army sources maintained that it was "not a surgical strike". The Eastern Command also tweeted, "Reports of casualties to #IndianArmy personnel factually incorrect. Firefight occurred along Indo-Myanmar border at 0445 hrs today @adgpi."

In June 2015, the Army had conducted a similar operation against banned insurgent groups following the killing of 20 soldiers in the northeastern state of Manipur.