Prasanta Mazumdar By

GUWAHATI: Commandos of 12 Para exchanged a barrage of gunshots with militants of the SS Khaplang faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) inside Myanmar in the wee hours of Friday.

According to official sources, there was no casualty in the gunbattle that began at 3 am and lasted for about two hours.

“The encounter took place beyond Thorloi, which is a Myanmar village two km from the Indian side of the international border in Nagaland’s Mon district. There was no casualty in the firefight,” Mon Superintendent of Police, Yangba Konyak, told Express.

“I myself have seen the commandos when they returned. There were around 30 of them, which makes a platoon,” he said.

“I don’t know of casualties, if any, on the side of NSCN-K,” he added.

The NSCN-K claimed that it had eliminated five to six commandos in the incident.

“The 12 Para commandos had intruded one and a half hour long walking distance into Myanmar. The commandos were first spotted by our army manning the forward security post and five to six commandos were gunned down,” the NSCN-K told Express in an email statement.

“The advancing commandos were pinned down and the rest ran helter-skelter in commotion. The random and blank retaliation proved futile because of our well-defended higher position. The dispersed commandos tried to regroup to counter-attack but were pursued on their heels by our army forcing the retreat,” the statement said.

The NSCN-K also claimed that the commandos, who survived the attack, had carried back the slain and injured colleagues on foot till the border. But the Mon district police chief said he had not seen the commandos carrying any bodies.

Last year, the NSCN-K had ambushed an Army convoy in Manipur’s Chandel district, killing 18 personnel and injuring several others.