DIBRUGARH: The two survivors of the firing by army para-commandoes in a botched up ambush in Nagaland on December 4 and their relatives were asked by the "Nagaland authorities" not to talk to the media about the incident which left 13 villagers dead.
This claim was made on Wednesday by the kin of 30-year-old Yeiwang Konyak and Sheiwang Konyak, 22, who were currently undergoing treatment in the ICU of Dibrugarh's Assam Medical College Hospital (AMCH).
A doctor of AMCH, who does not want to be quoted, also corroborated it.
The condition of the two persons who were admitted to the hospital at 1 am on December 5 with bullet injuries in the scalp, eye orbit, chest and elbow is serious and one of them is likely to be shifted to another medical establishment with better facilities, an official said.
The patients and their relatives who were earlier providing details of the ambush and subsequent incidents that led to the killing of 14 people, including an Army man, on December four, have become tightlipped now claiming that they have been asked not to talk to anybody including journalists about the incident by the Nagaland authorities.
"Please do not ask us anything. We were told not to talk about it to anyone," a relative of one of the two survivors urged media persons present at the AMCH.
Earlier, a close relative of one of the two patients said as the villagers of Tiru in Oting area of Mon district were anxiously waiting for the return of coal miners on December 4, they heard sounds of gunshots and rushed towards the area from where they were coming.
He claimed that the villagers found the pick-up van, in which the miners were returning, and there were bullet marks and bloodstains on it.
The villagers chased and stopped an army vehicle at a distance and found six bodies wrapped in tarpaulin in it, he claimed.
The situation became tense and in the ensuing melee, seven more civilians and one army man were killed, he said.
An official statement made by the Union government on Monday had said that based on inputs received by the Indian Army about movement of the insurgents near Tiru village, a team of para-commandos laid an ambush on Saturday.
A vehicle suspected of carrying insurgents was fired upon resulting in the killing of six out of eight people in it.
However, it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, the statement said.
Meanwhile, AMCH Superintendent Prasanta Dihingia told PTI that a surgery was conducted on Yeiwang on Tuesday night, two days after he was admitted to the hospital, as he had a heart condition and his pulse rate was high.
He had injuries in the scalp and an eye orbit.
Sheiwang with chest and elbow injuries was under observation and is likely to be referred to a hospital with better facilities for further treatment, Dihingia said.
Doctors of various departments such as surgery, neurosurgery, cardiology and ophthalmology are providing treatment to the two and "we have been asked to provide the best treatment to them," he said.