Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh paid tribute to the martyrs of the ambush on army soldiers in his state.
After laying wreaths on the coffins of the slain soldiers, he said that this attack should be taken as a lesson by the Indian army.
However, Major General Bipin Rawat told NDTV that it cannot be called an intelligence failure. “We get many inputs and we act on them. Many attacks are prevented but this one unfortunately happened,” he said.
Search operations to track down insurgents continued in the areas where army jawans were ambushed. Sources in the Assam Rifles said that combing operations continued at Paralong, Charong, Moltuh and other areas to track down the insurgents.
Eighteen persons, including 17 army personnel and a suspected militant, were killed in the ambush.
“All the bodies of army jawans killed in the ambush on Thursday have been identified,” the sources here said.
Naga insurgent outfit NSCN (Khaplang), with which the Centre abrogated ceasefire in March, has claimed responsibility for the ambush.
(With inputs from PTI)
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