Imphal: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested one of the miscreants involved in the 2024 attack on a security post in the Moreh area of Manipur’s Tengnoupal district, killing one policeman and injuring two others, an official said on Monday.
NIA sources said that Thangminlar Mate, a.k.a. Lenin Mate, a resident of Tengnoupal district, was nabbed on Sunday at Silchar in southern Assam, which shares an inter-state border with Manipur.
Mate’s affiliation to any militant group, however, is not clear yet.
According to sources, the attack was carried out on January 17 last year, resulting in the death of one Manipur Police personnel.
Two other police personnel were also seriously injured in the attack.
The Silchar court has given NIA the transit remand custody of the accused, the first person to be arrested in the case for production before the agency’s Special Court in Guwahati.
The NIA is continuing with its probe in the case.
Manipur police officials earlier had said that on January 17, 2024, armed militants orchestrated a violent attack on the state forces, using firearms and explosives in Moreh, Tengnoupal district.
In the incident, one personnel of 6th Manipur Rifles — Wangkhem Somorjit Meetei was killed in the line of duty, while three police personnel sustained injuries.
Police officials earlier said that gunfight followed the attack in some other locations in Moreh as the security forces, mostly Manipur police commandos, launched a massive search operation for those involved in the attack on the police camp near the State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Moreh.
Situated along the India-Myanmar border, Moreh is a Kuki-Zo-dominated town in Tengnoupal district.
The Integrated Check Post (ICP) Moreh, along the International Border between India and Myanmar, located at a distance of about 110 km from Manipur’s capital Imphal, is the biggest trading route between the two countries.