Itanagar: Amid a recent media report that held the Naga insurgent group NSCN(K)‘s Yung Aung faction responsible for the killing of Arunachal Pradesh MLA Tirong Aboh and 10 others in an ambush in the state’s Tirap district on May 21, the Assam Rifles has termed the news as false.
Lt Colonel Vincent Patton, the PRO of Inspector General of Assam Rifles, told EastMojo that the rebel leader — Yanghang alias Mopa , a self-styled major general of NSCN (K-Yung Aung), who was arrested by the security forces on Friday — was in no way connected with the killing of the MLA and others, as claimed by a regional media portal.
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“Self-styled Maj Gen Yanghang alias Mopa (the arrested cadre) has no connection with the killings that happened in Arunachal. He is in fact the senior-most officer of the NSCN (K) Yung Aung faction operating in Nagaland which is considered responsible for the ambush carried out on 40th Assam Rifles on May 25,” the PRO said.
“He has no connection to it. We (Nagaland) are actually the ones following up on this”, and another Defence PRO from the region was wrongly quoted by the media outlet, Patton said.
On Friday, after the Assam Rifles launched “sustained military operations in all dimensions”, Mopa was apprehended from Mon district in Nagaland. Mopa was reportedly behind the attack on a convoy carrying security personnel in which two jawans were martyred. Four others were injured in the incident that took place between Tobu and Ukha village in Mon district on May 25.
Patton further said that Mopa was also involved in another ambush on June 17, 2018 that killed four jawans of the 40th Assam Rifles and injured six others at Aboi in Mon district of Nagaland near the Indo-Myanmar border.
EastMojo also spoke to Guwahati-based Defence PRO, Lt Col P Khongsai, who said that he only gave information to the news portal about Friday’s arrests and never spoke about the killings in Arunachal.
Meanwhile, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is investigating the May 21 killing of MLA Aboh and 10 others, are yet to come up with any major breakthrough in the case so far.