Two more cadres of the proscribed People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been arrested in connection with the September 19 ambush on an Assam Rifles patrol in Manipur’s Bishnupur district that killed two personnel and injured five.
The arrests take the total to three after a special joint operation had earlier netted one PLA operative on Wednesday.
Manipur Police said in a post on X that the duo arrested on Friday were involved in the ambush on the 33 Assam Rifles team at Nambol Sabal Leikai. They were identified as Thongram Sadananda Singh, 18, of Thoubal district and self-styled Lt Corpl Chongtham Mahesh, 51, of Imphal West. Mahesh has been linked with the PLA since 1990. He was picked up from Guwahati with help from Assam’s crime branch.
Earlier, Khundongbam Ujit Singh, 47, a bailed-out PLA member from Imphal West, had admitted involvement during interrogation and led the police to recover a cache of weapons used in the ambush from the Loktak Lake area.
The PLA, a valley-based separatist insurgent group formed in 1978, has been active for decades.