An Indian Army convoy carrying 46 soldiers was ambushed in Moltuk valley at Parolong in Chandel district of Manipur bordering Mayanmar at 0830 hours on June 04, 2015.
Eighteen soldiers of 6th Battalion The Dogra Regiment were killed in this deadly ambush. Charred remains of those troops recovered narrate the horrific nature of this attack.
This terrain completely favours the insurgents. Dense under growth where at places even the sunlight fails to touch the ground.
The deadliest attack in 33 years; this ambush on an administrative convoy, just about 15 km from the Myanmar border, was reportedly carried out by a combined team of cadres drawn from Manipur-based outfits like the KYKL (KangleiYawolKannaLup), the KCP (Kangleipak Communist Party) and the Khaplang group of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K). It is feared that these attackers might have fled across in to Mayanmar.
The ambush took place on a convoy of four vehicles carrying troops proceeding on leave to Impahl. This convoy also included a Ghatak team (commandos) comprising anywhere upto 20 odd troops.
These specialist troops were to disembark at Machi post of 20 Assam Rifles enroute. As per our sources this ambush was tactically very well sited between the Road Opening Area of Responsibility bordering 20 Assam Rifle and 6 Dogra.
This terrain completely favours the insurgents. Dense under growth where at places even the sunlight fails to touch the ground. Restricted visibility, very high humidity, wild animals, insects and reptiles make this into one of the most frightening places to operate.
As this convoy was meandering through this thickly wooded hilly terrain, the first two vehicles were targeted by the insurgents in a well laid out ambush. They fired Rocket Propelled Grenades supported by heavy small arms fire.
This resulted in vehicles catching fire,burning to death the mounted troops instantaneously. The Indian Army troops were completely taken by surprise thus unable to retaliate in the manner rehearsed.
Going by the past incidents of such a nature, the North East insurgents are known to be carrying out dry rehearsals stretching into weeks before springing an operation. This also hints at failed intelligence on part of the Indian Army.
The soldiers overwhelmed by the violence were apparently shocked and confused. Advantageous situation for the attacker, the insurgents came out of their cover lobbing hand grenades on the survivors and slaying them with their machetes popularly known as Dah.
The selection of this site was meticulously done probably after a thorough recce and detailed planning. Going by the past incidents of such a nature, the North East insurgents are known to be carrying out dry rehearsals stretching into weeks before springing an operation. This also hints at failed intelligence on part of the Indian Army.
And as per their modus operandi the North Eastern insurgents have always executedprecise and lightening annihilation ambushes. Thus going by their history, any military observe of the North East would term this as a poorly executed operation on behalf of the insurgents. After all nearly majority of the soldiers did survive killing one of the insurgents.
In a state where abnormal is normal and a vast majority favours secessionism, it is unlikely for the peace to return soon. This incident has however has vindicated the stand of those military professionals who have opposed in unison the call to abrogate the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
It is high time that the activists and the members of our civil society, who cry in support for human rights of those generally sympathising the insurgent violence and demonise the soldiers in the line of duty, should be probed to rule out any foreign hand.
Unlike the state of J&K, the insurgency in the North East is not driven by religious motivation but it is an out crop of years of neglect and failed state machinery.
In the words of noted writer and journalist, Kishlay Bhatacharjee, “Manipur has been living through protracted insurgency. While there are several opinions, two of the most significant reasons for its never-ending war are a) the state’s defunct police force and b) the failure of the Indian state to formulate a counter-insurgency policy after engaging in internal strife for over 50 years. There are several other reasons for this.
Police administration in Manipur has virtually collapsed and the North Block is seized of the situation. It is deeply corrupt; the officer in charge of vigilance that comes directly under the chief secretary is reportedly sitting on over 700 cases: the disposal rate is abysmal.
There are 7,000 vacancies in the police department but the process of recruitment and posting have always been questionable”.
Unlike the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the insurgency in the North East is not driven by religious motivation but it is an out crop of years of neglect and failed state machinery.
Please wait...
Contd from my previous comment —
The way we fight insurgency is a pathetic presentation of an apathetic attitude of the Government. The Army ethos of fighting insurgency has decayed because the Generalship has failed the Army. They have bowed down to political machinations and let the Army suffer ignominiously in its operations there.
The only way out is – GET OUT THE POLITICIANS – GET OUT THE INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES — LEAVE IT TO THE ARMY TO SORT IT OUT IN ITS OWN WAY. GIVE THE ARMY A FREE HAND TO FUNCTION – AND LASTLY LETS START HITTING THEM ACROSS THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER. By now Issac and Muhiva should have been assassinated in the luxury of their homes in Thailand. We are a nation of weaklings with weak minds and a weak system which lets others rule the roost.
I think its not fair to comment on the actions of what happened on ground. We don’t know what actually happened and how it happened. There are a few issues to discuss.
Firstly –we have been there for donkey’s years and haven’t made a dent the situation there. If we are talking about intelligence failure ask the RAW who had a truck with the NSCN (K). Why did we nurture NSCN (K) and why did we protect them against annihilation by the NSCN(IM).
Secondly –our Infantry Battalions are poorly trained and poorly equipped. Peace time tenures are spent in doing ‘working’ most of the time. Who will train the Battalion when in peace time there are only a handfull of officers present in the Battalion. If you go to an Infantry Battalion in peacetime, you will find not more than 6 to 7 officers present in the Battalion at one time. Take out the key appointments and you have no one left to be with the troops in the Battalion. Army guys will understand what I am talking about.
Thirdly – We have a mismatch of formations in the North East. Regular Army Division and Assam Rifles Headquarters, like IGAR (North). Its an unhealthy setup full of dissonance and focus. Assam Rifles call themselves the friends of the Hill People. That’s very good but there are buts !!!???
Fourthly – Our Infantry Battalions are poorly equipped. We carry with us third rate equipment. The INSAS rifle was an outdated piece of equipment right from its inception. Why are Infantry Battalions not provided with small arms protected vehicles? Where are the night sights? We cant even mount a weapon on a normal truck – nothing is provided for it. It would cost just Rs 1000 or less to have a bracket mount for a machine gun on a truck. Its sheer apathy.
contd……..
Danvir, do pardon me but you could have covered the massive lapses committed by the attacked party of 6 DOGRA. I can understand the ‘infantry brotherhood’ part but still. In my view, it was a complete black demonstration in which our soldiers paid for their lapses with their lives. Its now the turn of their commanders up to Div level pay for it with their careers. Any cover up will be a travesty of justice.
As regards the insurgency, the Indian state has failed spectacularly in the NE. If the NE states could not be co-opted in 68 years, then there is a need for a major review of our domestic policies rising above the ‘atoot ang’ rhetoric.
It is indeed the Army’s job to quell insurgencies but 68 years is too much. Why should our soldiers pay for the follies of the political class with their lives? Just because, “theirs is not to question why?”
Not fair Sir.
THE INDIAN ARMY CONVOY WAS POORLY EQUIPPED . THE HARDY WELL TRAINED SOLDERS NEED EYES IN THE SKY UAVS , NIGHT VISION 4TH GEN , 7.62 LIGHTWEIGHT LMGS WITH AMERICAN 500 ROUNDS CHAIN FED AMMO BELTS , NEW SNIPER AND ANTIMATERIAL RIFLES , NEW GEN SWEDISH LIGHTWEIGHT ROCKET LAUNCHERS , GEN 5 MKU BPJS AND HELMETS , HIDDEN COMMUNICATION AND VHF SETS . COMBAT WATER PROOF AND TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED CLOTHING, NEW GEN OF ARMOURED TRUCKS , HUMVEE AND LMV VEHICLES . 18 LIVES WERE LOST BECAUSE
SOME LOUSY BABU SAT ON THE FILES SOMEWHERE IN FINANCE , MOD FINANCE AND MOD . THE GENERALS ARE EQUALLY TO BLAME BECAUSE THEY HAVE FAILED TO RAISE THEIR VOICE AND LIKE SILENT LAMBS CARRIED ON AND CONNIVED WITH THE BABUS TO MAINTAIN STATUS QUO . SOME HEADS BOTH IN MOD AND SERVICE HQS INCLUDING EASTERN COMMAND , CORPS AND DIV , BRIG HQS MUST ROLL . RESPONSIBILTY AND ACCOUNTABILTY MUST BE FIXED BY THE DEFENCE MINSTER FOR THE LOSS OF 18 LIVES. OFFICERS , JCOS , GENERALS AND BABUS MUST BE SACKED . ONLY THEN WILL THINGS IMPROVE .
The army must use UAV to scan the area before army movement in such areas. Now that the ambush has taken place, they should have 24 hr UAV scan of border area while combing operation takes place to catch the terrorists.
Good article, but Indian soldiers should use UAV with night and infrared camera before any operation or any army convoys movement. Indian soldiers should secure the area before they move.
This article actually sums up praising the insurgents. Dense foliage and wild beasts hinder only Indian armed forces but not the insurgents ? Surely “failure of intelligence” is an oft repeated cliche. But that would lead to failed strategy not tactics in an actual combat situation.
Surely we are left wanting in terms of human intel but what of technology ? Have the drones, motion detectors, remote sensing (spy) satellites been adequately and correctly used time and again ? Or are they another bunch of “gates” waiting to open on investments that never happened ?
What were “upto 20 Ghataks” doing ? Do our commandos need invitation to combat or shouldn’t they be combat-ready at all times ? Even the African Massai awake to full combat readiness from their sleep. If the militants train in dense forests with reptiles, wild beasts etc. where exactly to our Jawaans posted in that region along with Ghatak Commandos train ?
Surely a soft soft has been leveraged with reference to our shahid Jawaans going on leave – but do they leave behind their weapons and alertness when proceeding to their leave while traveling barely 15km from borders with a different country that’s known to harbor the militants who somehow find the difficult terrain easy to train for a fortnight before surgical strikes on a convoy of 46 Indian Jawaans ?
Now if they have indeed been training for a fortnight just for this strike has anyone been paying due attention to the acute possibility that they were in possession of the advance intel that 46 of our “administrative” guys would be passing through that zone in (at least) a fortnight’s period ?
I seriously hope our babus and military officers alike, bootstrap and avoid providing our bravehearts for target practice of India’s enemies in future. Time to revisit and revise several/ all doctrines and protocols at work, considering similar victories of communist terrorists in NE or Naxal belt.
Nature abhors a vacuum. As Karl Marx wrote ” When the Machine of state is Weak, corrupt, Criminal or Too Coercive , Marxism & Communism Gain ground.[ The Indian Establishment is NOW Percieved as being all of these ].The Indian army has NOT been Unaffected..It has gone down In QUALITY of the Generals, Officers & Soldiers. Though I Feel sad for the Losses suffered by the Army- A clinical judgement must be devoid of Emotions & Breast beating..In this particular case,The SOP’s were not followed, Basic Precautions of a convoy in a militant area were ignored, there was total failure of Mil.Intell.,Lack of Professionalism & WORSE-Failure to anticipate trouble..TROUBLE had been Brewing in the Area for a long time after a Local woman was killed by the Army & the whole area had observed a shutdown a week before the incident as per newspaper reports. A full & Detailed enquiry is required or else the few bad sheep in the Army will cause more trouble for India & the Army in the Long term in the North East..Stop whitewashing the Court of Enquiries to save a few carreers of some officers . Justice must not only be done but also shown to be done.
Hope to read a more accurate account of what happened. The place looks like most other places in the jungle covered hills of the NE. What did the men in the other two vehicles do? Were both vehicles hit by rocket launchers? Were the last two vehicles hit? How was the convoy protection organised?
Where were the nearest men of the ROP? At this particular spot who was responsible for the road opening? If the location was a probable ambush site why was it not manned? Was it routine for the convoys of the Battalion to pass that way regularly? Maybe daily? Does the author have personal knowledge of the area? Has he interacted with anyone in the Battalion?
It would be wrong to jump to conclusions unless all the facts are known.
KKK
The author fails to suggest solutions. It is regretful that one of the largest armed forces in the world cannot take down a bunch of rag tag terrorists operating inside India and under the watchful eyes of the so called law and order frontier force. Is this a problem with the leadership, lack of direction or resource. With Modi in the saddle in Delhi none of these should be a factor. So, what is the answer? How many more incidents like this before something is done?
The source of the violence against the armed forces is the Constitution, and the Neta-Babu-Cop-Milard-Crony-Kleptocracy. But China seems to have succeeded in this ploy of dragging the Army into the 65 year old Indian Civil War to wage war against Indians (whatever that might be?!)
Manipur was a highly cultured “Special District” (Like Coorg) until 1947. It had the first written Constitution in the Sub Continent and was, arguably, even more cultured than Mysore. Nehru posted his Satrap there and began, with Ambedkar, his social engineering legislation which his Satrap imposed with an iron hand while finding time away from his womanizing rape and plunder. Ever since, every family in Manipur has had at least one person under arms and underground. Just one small fractal of a nation in a perpetual civil war created by India’s founding “architects”. Notably, Ambedkar and Nehru. All of India’s seething unrest both kinetic and potential can be traced back to India’s grotesque “Animal Farm” Constitution and “Social Engineering” Laws. The violence under the surface of India, waiting to break out, is of massive proportions.
THE ARTICLE HAS NOT EXPLORED A KEY ELEMENT – i.e. THE U-TURN BY NSCN-K RE ABJURING OF VIOLENCE AND NEGOTIATIONS AS WAS BEING PURSUED BY ALL NAGA GPs TILL RECENTLY. WHAT HAS PROMPTED THE SPLINTER GP TO DO SO? IS IT CHINA ONCE AGAIN FORMENTING TROUBLE IN THE AREA ADJOINING ARUNACHAL? ALSO WHAT GEO-POLITICAL FACTORS COULD HAVE LED CHINA TO DO SO – IF INDEED IT IS THE CHINESE.
Rather sad and certainly unacceptable! What the author talks about is routine & elementary, every professional knows that Manipur is tough and has remained tough for decades. HQ 3 Corps has been looking after this sector for more than couple of decades now. Complacency possibly may have set in unless it is the fatigue. We will never come to know?
Failure of intelligence & command! But where do we fix the accountability?
IS IT A WELL ORCHESTED ATTACK AFTER THE PAK PM MEETS WITH THE ISI CHIEF AND THE PAK ARMY CHIEF . WAS THE CONVOY A LOGISTICS UNARMED OR A WELL PROTECTED CONVOY , ARE ARMS DEALERS NOW SHOWCASING ARMOURED VEHICLES AND TRUCKS TO THE ARMY , TIME HAS COME WHEN THE ARMY HAS TO UPGRADE TO ARMOURED ARMED TRUCKS LIKE THE NEW GENERATION RUSSIAN OR AMERICAN HUMVEE TYPE VEHICLES WHERE IF ATTACKED THE AMBUSH CAN BE BROKEN AND SOME LIVES CAN BE SAVED . THE POOR SONS OF INDIA HAVING LOST LIFE
BECAUSE SOMEWHERE SOME ROTTEN BABU SAT ON THE FILE FOR THE LIGHTWEIGHT RIFLE , 7.62 LMG , KORTZ MACHINE GUNS , NEW SWEDISH ROCKET LAUNCHERS , 5GEN KEVLAR HELMETS AND BPJS . FOR MODERN WARFARE THE DISCIPLINED INFANTRY REGIMENTS ARE HOPELESSLY EQUIPPED AND IT IS A SHAME OF THE MILTARYPLANNING DISCONNECT WHERE 1000 CRORE RAFALES ARE PURCHASED OR A 10 BILLION DOLLAR AIRCRAFT CARRIER PLANNED BUT ESSENTIAL INFANTRY AND FOOT SOLDERS FIGHTING GEAR IS SEVERELY NEGLECTED .
Indian Army needs to come to terms of the need to upgrade their technology of Intelligence collection. What stops the Indian Army of using( Unarmed Airial vehicle)UAV, Drones and helicopter gunships for their continuous recce of the area of responsibility through out day and night and also to take on the Militants. Use of correct fire power against the state enemy is absolutely with in the power of Army. Cost of UAV is nothing as against the bad effect of these kind of attacks on the Army. It is not understood as to why these kind of resources are not placed under the Sector commander’s disposal. UAV s are affordable as on date even for delivery of Pizzas.
In the past when insurgency was at its peak in both Nagaland and Manipur, axis of movement such as roads used to cleared of all the foliage and all the dominating heights would be occupied by troops in the vicinity.
Weather Army has followed these set drills is not known.
Army always pays heavily for their mistakes and learn the lessons in a hard way. Hope, the authorities give a free hand to Army in annihilating these militants,, be it in our soil or in the neighboring country namely erstwhile Burma
Army is reqd to help at every disaster. civil administration never rises to the occasion. it only rises to politics and disgrace armed forces. shame on the administration and politicians of this country from top to bottom….
It is very well known that ambushes by insurgents are precise, deadly and executed after several rehearsals. So why bother the readers with these. Where the convoy was headed and what route it was taking is immaterial. Where India has failed is that in so many decades it has not been able to change the discourse with regard to agents of change and nationalism. We let Manipur drift which was once a Hindu kingdom and allowed christian missionaries to divide Norteast on religious line. The church has a big hand in fomenting insurgency in the region. Sonia Gandhi at the behest of Vatican removed Gamlin as CM of Arunanchal because he was not facilitating conversions.She then used seven christian MLAs from Tirap sector to oust him.
Really sad to learn about this ambush. It is known that such ambushes are plann ed and prepared in detail. I strongly feel that the terrorists would have dug trenches for their firing positions( i HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN A FEW AMBUSH SITES) .Besides the Int failure, it reflects poorly on the unit in whose AOR this occured.Was ROP carried out, why inter-veh distance not maintained. Sad it is, but the incident shows lack of professionalism.
Well,, Assam Rifles is more potent and suited in NE. Assam Rifles was most proficient and effective in dealing insurgency in NE. Rasthriya Rifles was raised onto its line. But some see it as a second grade step son. Live and Let Die atiitude!! It is littered with corruption and years of neglect. Government should restructure it to modern time. sorry state of affair…Glory to martyrs
The AFSPA has been repealed in Tripura, A CPI M Run State.There are noices and voices against AFSPA from Manipur since long.Irom Sharmila is still on hunger strike.If the citizens do not want this, let the civil adm do the needful to repeal it.Why Army men need to become the enemies ? The politicians are firing from our shoulders. Do they have the guts to do away with Army assistance to run the Govt?
Nice article. I completely agree with the author about AFAPA and Govt of India should just ignore the voices of pseudo pacifists including a former Union Home and Finance minister who are out to damage the effectiveness of SFs against insurgents.Also one of the reason why the pot will continue to boil in NE is the parallel economy and govt run by the insurgents in those areas.Indian Army should never let its guard down.
As an ex soldier, the loss of so many men is deeply saddening & disturbing. Having also served in the NE during a turbulent time in the 80’s as also in the light of the details as has emerged in the open media, it could just have been the a result of complacency setting in following such a long period of relative calm. The unit should have been adequately cautioned during daily roll calls etc, specially when its known that the rebels usually strike when a unit is on its way out after its tenure is over. Investigations will also revel the state of civil – military relations between the unit personal and the locals in the area. It has happened in the past that locals take the help of insurgents in avenging perceived wrongs that may have been committed by the unit personal during their tenure. What ever be the case, 18 precious lives have been lost & now post-mortems will only affix responsibility at command level, intelligence assessments etc. What we need is swift follow up actions & institutional correctives to prevent repeats.
Charred remains of army soldiers recovered narrate how horrific this attack was……but media dont find it a headline where as a Muslim lady asked to vacate the house mattered them most..smtym I wonder why ppl die for this insensitive nation. ..