Manipur leader's convoy ambushed

Separatist rebels in India's Manipur state attacked chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh's convoy on Wednesday, wounding a bodyguard, police said.

More than 30 rebels, hiding on both sides of a highway in Thoubal district, opened fired with automatic weapons.

Mr Singh was unhurt, but one of his bodyguards was badly injured. A rebel was killed when guards returned fire.

Mr Singh, a veteran leader of the ruling Congress party, was at the time on his way to visit remote villages.

Police have launched a massive combing operation in and around Wiakhong in Thoubal district and scores of police and paramilitary soldiers are trying to track down the group which carried out the attack.

None of Manipur's rebel groups have admitted carrying out the attack, but intelligence officials say they suspect the involvement of the People's Liberation Army, one of the strongest separatist groups in the state.

Wednesday's attack is the second attempt on Mr Singh's life by rebels. In a similar attack in 2003, a bodyguard and a driver were killed.