Nagaland tragedy and questions that remain unanswered

An Army special forces unit ambushed a vehicle carrying some coalmine workers in which six were killed.

Angry villagers burn vehicles belonging to security personnel after 13 civilians were killed by the security forces in two incidents of firing at Oting village in Nagaland. (File Photo | PTI)

With Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement in Parliament, it is now officially confirmed that the death of 13 civilians in Mon, Nagaland, on Saturday was the result of mistaken identity. An Army special forces unit ambushed a vehicle carrying some coalmine workers in which six were killed. Hearing the gunshots, nearby villagers gheraoed the Armymen, who fired again, killing seven more civilians.

While the Army has ordered a court of inquiry, the civil police has also filed an FIR and set up an SIT to probe the incident, which Shah said has to complete its report within a month. But the incident and its fallout throw up many questions that remain unanswered. Firstly, why did the Army conduct a covert operation in an area where there has been no active insurgency for years, if not decades? In fact, insurgency in almost all parts of the Northeast, except perhaps Manipur, is largely dormant after the Central government signed ceasefire agreements with most rebel groups in the region and peace talks are underway with all of them. The few groups that have not signed any agreement are Manipur’s People’s Liberation Army and Assam’s Paresh Baruah faction of the ULFA.

So the Army statement on Sunday citing credible information of insurgent movement in Mon appears to defy logic as it suggests that insurgents continue to attack, loot and pillage, which is not the case. Secondly, the FIR by the police does not necessarily mean that the guilty Army personnel will be brought to book. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1972, provides protection to the personnel from any prosecution unless it is sanctioned by the Central government. None of the statements by the authorities so far indicates that, if found guilty, sanction will be granted and due process of law will follow. It is not surprising then that at least two chief ministers, Nagaland’s Neiphiu Rio and Meghalaya’s Conrad Sangma, have called for the law’s repeal.

With the government admitting that the ambush was an error of judgement, it must take at least some preliminary action against the personnel involved in order to assuage the anger in Nagaland. A failure to do so will only invite criticism and charges of duplicity.