Survivors: Ranjit Mongar (Left) and Ladha Dukpa (Right)

January 4: The two forestry personnel who survived the brutal attack in Sarpang said they were taken completely by surprise.

They are now undergoing treatment at the national referral hospital.

One of them has been injured in both eyes by splinters from the blast. The other has been shot in his buttocks.

Doctors said they are recovering and described their condition as stable.

One of them, 41-year-old Ladha Dukpa, a father of three children, has served in Phibsoo for over eight years. He said there has been no such untoward incident in the past and he did not anticipate that an attack like this would take place. They were traveling along a narrow, bumpy tractor track through a dense forest when the militants attacked them.

He said he heard a loud deafening bang and he was thrown out of the tractor they were traveling in. Initially he thought he may have accidentally shot himself.

It was only when he heard one of the militants telling the other militants to kill everybody and not to let anybody escape that he realized they were being attacked.

Somehow he managed to run into the jungle. He could not see properly as he was injured in both eyes by splinters from the blast. He was also bleeding profusely from wounds in one of his legs and could not even move from where he was hiding.

Meanwhile, Ranjit Mongar, the second forestry personnel who also survived the brutal attack, managed to reach Singay village and inform the villagers who in turn alerted the police.