Violence erupts in Nagaland state after India forces ‘mistakenly’ kill civilians
Dec 5, 2021: Protesters threw stones and set fire to areas around a camp belonging to Indian forces in the remote northeast, with one civilian shot dead in renewed violence a day after 14 people were killed by defence forces, officials said.
At least 14 civilians and one member of the security forces were killed in Nagaland state on Saturday night, after Indian forces mistook a group of labourers for militants and opened fire.
A New Delhi-based Federal Ministry of Defense official said more than a dozen civilians and some members of the security forces were injured in the incident and the ensuing violence. Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said he was “anguished” by the news of the killing of civilians, members of a local tribal group.
Northeast India is home to a complex network of tribal groups, many of whom have started uprisings, accusing New Delhi of squandering resources and doing too little to improve their lives.
People in Nagaland have often accused the security forces of wrongfully targeting innocent locals in counter-insurgency operations against rebel groups. On Sunday, citizens in Nagaland’s Moon district staged anti-government protests, killing 14 tribesmen.
Indian military and government officials were not immediately available to comment on the latest killing.
A senior Nagaland-based police official said Saturday’s incident took place in and around the village of Oting in the Mon district bordering Myanmar. The firing started when a truck carrying 30 or more coal miners was passing through the Assam Rifles camp.
A security official on condition of anonymity told Reuters, “The troopers had intelligence inputs about some militant movement in the area and on seeing the truck they mistook the miners to be rebels and opened fire killing six labourers,”
“After the news of firing spread in the village, hundreds of tribal people surrounded the camp. They burnt Assam Rifles vehicles and clashed with the troopers using crude weapons,” he said.
Members of the Assam Rifles retaliated, and in the second attack eight more civilians and a security force member were killed, the official said.
The Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA), an influential rights’ group in Nagaland, appealed to all Naga tribes to mourn the loss of civilian lives and demanded that the Indian army’s cantonments should be shifted out of civilian areas.
“Let the world know our grief and sorrow and may our voices of protest be heard against the continuing militarisation and killings under the Armed Forces Powers Act,” said Abeiu Meru, the president of NMA.
The act gives the armed forces broad powers to search and arrest, and can shoot if they deem it necessary to maintain law and order in those parts of the country they call “troubled areas.”
Parts of Nagaland were given that designation by the federal government last year. Police and local government officials have stepped up vigilance and patrols in the border state ahead of the last rites of death scheduled for Monday.
In recent years, India has tried to persuade Myanmar to expel rebels from bases in the densely forested non-fenced areas bordering Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
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