militant attack
[Representational Image]IANS

A group of suspected Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) militants opened fire at a camp of Assam Rifles in remote Lazu area in Arunachal Pradesh's Tirap district in the wee hours on Sunday.

NSCN (Khaplang) rebels attacked the Assam Rifles (AR) camp along the India-Myanmar border region at around 2.30am, PTI reported quoting Tirap SP Ajit Kumar Singla.

However, the militants, said to be 35 in number, fled after 10 minutes of cross firing. The central paramilitary troopers have launched a manhunt to trace down the militants.

"The AR personnel, who were on alert as per prior intelligence report, retaliated which compelled the militants to flee under cover of darkness," Singla said adding.

The paramilitary forces recovered around 70 empty cartidges of AK-47 rifle and unexploded bombs from the site.

The attack on Assam Rifles comes just three days after 18 soldiers of its 6 Dogra infantry regiment were martyred in an ambush in Manipur's Chandel district. The NSCN had claimed responsibilty for the attack.

In a similar incident on 3 May, at least eight Assam Rifles personnel were killed by suspected Naga rebels near Myanmar border in Nagaland's Mon district.