Three Indian Assam Rifles personnel were killed and five injured in an ambush near India-Myanmar border at Chandel area in Manipur on Wednesday night, according to the National Herald newspaper in India.

A senior government officer said that a group of 15 soldiers were returning from an area dominance patrol at Khongtal in Chandel area when an improvised explosive device exploded. They then came under heavy fire from an insurgent group.

On June 23, a report published by the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) stated that Indian insurgents from the country's north eastern states, who have been sheltered for years in Myanmar, present security challenges for India.

"In addition to being threats to national security, they are also irritants that impact India's Act East Policy. The Indian suspicion, not without basis, is that impeding the progress of India's Act East projects has assumed weight in China's strategic thinking. The influx of Chinese weapons is, accordingly, in tune with such thinking," the EFSAS said.

In 2015, in an attack by Naga group NSCN (K), a total 18 Indian Army soldiers were killed in Chandel district of Manipur. As retaliation, the force had carried out strikes on Myanmar hideouts of the group, according to the newspaper.