NEW DELHI: NEW DELHI: At least 20 Army personnel were killed and 12 injured in a militant attack in Manipur 's Chandel district on Thursday, TV reports said.

The 6 Dogra convoy came under attack while it was coming from Motul towards Imphal. The incident took place at 8.45am. The injured soldiers have been airlifted to Nagaland.

An Army spokesman said that the militants first fired rocket-propelled grenades at the four-vehicle convoy which was on its way to Imphal from Chandel. The ambush took place when the convoy reached between Paralong and Charong villages.

Most of the bodies were charred.

This is being seen as the worst attack on the Indian Army in at least a decade. A dozen soldiers were also wounded in the most deadly attack in the region in recent years.

Security analysts suspect the attack was in retaliation against the reported killing on Monday of a woman by soldiers. The district observed a complete shutdown on Wednesday in protest over the killing.

Manipur, which has a population of 2.5 million, has faced an armed insurgency for years in which several tribal militant groups are active.

Security forces have struggled to contain the unrest despite being granted sweeping shoot-to-kill powers in so-called "disturbed areas" under the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

The AFSPA is in force in most northeastern states, where clashes claimed 450 lives last year, according to South Asian Terrorism Portal. Lawmakers recently lifted the act in one state, Tripura, that borders Bangladesh.

