Fourteen civilians
and one soldier were killed in Nagaland Saturday in a botched counter-insurgency
operation carried out by an elite unit of the Indian Army’s Para Special Forces.
The classified operation, sources say, was being carried out without the
knowledge of the Assam Rifles, the paramilitary force in charge of counter
insurgency ops in the region.

The region in
question

Mon, the place
where the killings took place, is a volatile district of strategic importance. A
stronghold of the Naga group NSCN (K) as well as the ULFA (United Liberation
Front of Assam), the district shares an international border with Myanmar and
is located adjacent to Assam.   

As things
unfolded

It was around 4 pm
on Saturday and an army team, led by a major, spotted a pick-up truck which it
found suspicious. The army team opened fire at the truck which had eight people
on board — six of them were killed on the spot. Two others died on the way to
hospital. Media reports claim that the people in the truck were all coal
miners. No arms or ammunition were found on the truck.

As news of the
firing spread around the area, hundreds of villagers armed with stones and
machetes attacked the soldiers. The army team then opened fire in self-defense
killing five villagers and injuring several others, according to an NDTV report
quoting sources. A soldier was killed and several were injured in the violence.

Government
response

The incident has
outraged large sections of the Naga community. State government sources said
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who was in Delhi, rushed back to Nagaland and
is expected to hold a cabinet meeting, government sources said. On Monday
morning, the chief minister tweeted that a special investigation team will
probe the matter.

Union Home
Minister Amit Shah tweeted: “Anguished over the unfortunate incident in
Nagaland’s Oting, Mon. I express my deepest condolences to the families of
those who have lost their lives. A high-level SIT constituted by the State govt
will thoroughly probe this incident to ensure justice to bereaved families.”