Itanagar, Oct 22 (IANS) A suspected self-styled Sergeant Major of United Liberation Front of Assam-Independent (ULFA-I) was killed by the Army and Assam Rifles in a joint operation in Arunachal Pradesh’s Namsai district on Wednesday, officials said.

A defence spokesman said that on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, an operation was launched by Army and Assam Rifles units and then established contact with terrorists at 6 Mile Lekang Khampti areas in Namsai district.

The search conducted after first light revealed one dead body of a militant, identified as Iwon Axom, a self-styled Sergeant Major of ULFA-I. One Rifle, one rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) round, and three rucksacks were recovered along with the body of the militant from the spot.

The spokesman said that, after the recovery of the militant’s body and arms and ammunition, the operation was further intensified and is still underway. Additional columns of security forces have also been incorporated with columns of the state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

The operation underlined the unrelenting efforts of the security forces to maintain peace and to prevent any inimical activities along the Assam-Arunachal border, where intermittent activities by militant outfits have been reported in recent months.

Sources said that the group of suspected ULFA-I terrorists was from the same group that had carried out an attack at an army COB in Kakopathar in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district on October 17.

Slain militant Iwon Axom is suspected to have been involved in the October 17 attack, in which three Army personnel sustained minor abrasions, after militants opened fire and lobbed grenades at the camp from a moving vehicle.

“Troops on duty responded immediately and effectively, taking due caution to avoid collateral damage to civilian houses in the close vicinity,” a statement had said.

It said that the exchange of fire had lasted several minutes before the attackers fled the area under pressure from the Army’s retaliatory response.

–IANS

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