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Imphal, Oct. 9: Three BSF personnel, including a deputy commandant, sustained injuries when an IED exploded on the outskirts of Imphal city this morning. The site of the blast is just 200 metres from an Assam Rifles post.
Police said the IED, planted on a road divider at Luwangsangbam Mayai Leikai along Imphal-Dimapur highway, was detonated by militants using a remote control device when a two-vehicle convoy of the BSF was crossing the area this morning.
The injured have been identified as deputy commandant of 15th BSF battalion Lima Changen, head constable Anand Ballaph and driver M.S. Bansal.
They were admitted to a nearby private clinic and are out of danger.
The battalion is based in Kohima and it is not clear what the BSF personnel were doing in Imphal. Sources, however, said they could have been coming to Manipur where the BSF felicitated Olympic Games boxing medallist Mary Kom yesterday in Churachandpur district.
“I was attending to a customer when I heard a loud sound. Later I came to know that a bomb had exploded on the road divider and some security personnel coming in two vehicles were wounded,” Jeevan, a worker at a petrol pump, said.
After the blast the police scanned the nearby areas, but nothing was recovered. No one claimed responsibility for the blast and no arrest has been made.
Today is the foundation day of the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak and People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (Progressive). The police could not say whether the blast was triggered by any of these militant groups.
The police said the device exploded today was similar to the one triggered by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of the Revolutionary People’s Front, yesterday at Moidangpok in Imphal West. The IED exploded immediately after an Assam Rifles convoy passed the area along Imphal-Jiribam road.
No one was injured in the blast.
While claiming responsibility for yesterday’s attack, the PLA warned that more such attacks on security forces were imminent.
Today’s blast triggered resentment among local residents who staged a sit-in near the site of the blast blocking half of the Imphal-Dimapur road. “It was lucky for all of us that at the time of the explosion no school van was plying. If the traffic was heavy at the time of the incident the explosion could have killed many people. Such incidents should be avoided,” L. Geeta Devi, a resident of the area, said.
The police had yesterday recovered a hand grenade apparently left by someone to intimidate the owner of a petrol pump.
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