Guwahati: The proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom – Independent (ULFA-I) has claimed that the Indian Army launched drone and missile strikes on its camps in Myanmar on Sunday morning, killing two top leaders and injuring at least 19 others. The Indian Army said that it has no information about any such operation.
A series of explosions were reported at ULFA-I and National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) camps located in Myanmar’s Sagaing region in the early hours of Sunday.
The coordinated attack apparently took place around dawn and involved over a hundred unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) targeting rebel hideouts in the Naga Self-Administered Zone, close to the India-Myanmar border. The ULFA-I has claimed that the Myanmar Army was aware of the operation in advance.
One of the primary targets was ULFA-I’s 779 Camp located at Waktham Basti. There were five cadres present in the camp at that time but no injuries or fatalities could be confirmed. A more intense attack targeted ULFA-I’s Eastern Command Headquarters (ECHQ) at Hoyat Basti, also situated in the Sagaing region.
According to a statement issued by ULFA-I, the strike was carried out when the funeral of its top commander Nayan Medhi, alias Nayan Asom, was being held. Asom, a self-styled lieutenant general of the outfit was allegedly killed in a similar drone strike a day earlier.
The statement says that ‘Lt Gen’ Nayan Asom, who was posthumously honoured by the group as an ‘immortal martyr’, after being killed in a recent drone strike carried out by ‘colonial occupational forces.’
Sunday morning’s strike – referred to as ‘barbaric and inhumane’ by the ULFA-I reportedly resulted in the deaths of ‘Brigadier’ Ganesh Asom and ‘Colonel’ Pradip Asom — both senior figures within ULFA-I’s lower council.
The outfit further claimed that aerial attacks by fighter aircraft are ongoing in specific locations within its operational zones and vowed to take ‘revenge’ for what it termed a ‘cruel violation of humanitarian norms’.
Nayan Asom, whose funeral was being conducted when the attack reportedly took place, was considered a prominent ideological and strategic figure within ULFA(I). His death in the prior drone strike marked a significant loss for the group.
The drone operation also hit several NSCN(K) positions in the vicinity. Unverified intelligence inputs suggest multiple casualties among the Naga insurgent group’s cadres, although exact figures are not available.