Bijay Sankar Bora

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, June 7

An Army officer and three militants were killed during a gunbattle in interior Lappa of Mon district in Nagaland last night. A civilian was also killed in the fire exchange.Kohima-based Defence spokesman Col Chiranjeet Konwer identified the slain officer as Major David Manlun of Territorial Army’s 164 Brigade. While the officer belongs to Manipur, his body was taken to Shillong where his family lives.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The bodies of the militants, who belonged to a combined group of the banned ULFA (Independent) and NSCN (Khaplang), were handed over to the police.Col Konwer said the identity of the civilian was yet to be ascertained.Lappa is located close to the Assam-Nagaland border, about 330 km from state capital Kohima.The encounter took place when a team led by Maj Manlun went to Lappa following specific information on the presence of a group of militants in the area.During a search, the militants lobbed a grenade and fired at the Army men, killing the Major.The Army later found an AK-56 assault rifle, two Chinese AK series rifles, two grenades, three IEDs and 270 live rounds of AK series at the encounter site.