The NSCN-IM on Sunday refuted the report of an encounter between the Manipur police/Assam Rifles and NSCN-IM in Bishnupur district of Manipur on Saturday where two NSCN cadres were reportedly injured as “fabricated and baseless”.
The NSCN-IM is constrained to clarify that there was no encounter whatsoever and recovery of arms and ammunition by the Manipur police are baseless, stated a release issued by the Ministry of Information and Publicity of GPRN.
“What actually happened was that the Manipur police along with the AR personnel came in civvies and surrounded the house where the NSCN members were staying and caught the NSCN members by surprise with a volley of indiscriminate firings, resulting in the injury of the two NSCN cadres,” the release stated.
The two injured NSCN cadres identified as Jaiolen Chiru and Jenthaingam Longmei were reportedly admitted to the hospital by the Manipur police awaiting their formal arrest upon recovery.
Police claimed that two NSCN-IM cadres were injured in an encounter with a combined team of Bishnupur district police commandos and AR at Laimaton Ching area in Bishnupur district.
Police sources said that the combined force came under attack from armed cadres of the outfit and in retaliation, two cadres were injured. One AK assault rifles, a hand grenade and some documents were allegedly recovered from the injured cadres.
Meanwhile, the NSCN-IM stated that the allegation levelled by the Assam police against NSCN member Khampai W and Khunghee Mikkam who were arrested last Friday in Tezpur, Assam is factually incorrect.
They were never in possession of arms and ammunition and have no connection with the ambush on Assam Rifles personnel in Nagaland as alleged by the Assam police in the media, it added.
“Such baseless charges levelled against NSCN members are refuted outright,” the clarification stated, adding that it asked the Manipur police and Assam police to refrain from inventing “cooked up” stories to suit their interest.
