Congress slams Centre over Nagaland ambush, says 'committed mistake'

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday said the ambush incident in Nagaland was a result of the Centre's mistake.

Taking to media, Kharge said, "We wanted to ask about compensation to the bereaved families, as well as about compensation from central government. But we were not given an opportunity. The Union Home Minister just spoke and said in the last paragraph that 'government regrets'. What does that mean? It means that you committed a mistake."

"What was your Intelligence Department doing? What were your informants doing? He (Union Home Minister) should know all these things. We were ready to ask these things but the House was adjourned after his statement," added the Congress leader.

Speaking at Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday termed the civilian killing by security forces in Nagaland a "case of mistaken identity" and informed that a special investigation team (SIT) has been formed with direction to submit its report on the unfortunate incident within one month.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday directed all agencies to ensure that "no such unfortunate incident recurs in future while undertaking operations against insurgents".

The direction came in after a Monday morning meeting conducted by the MHA to review the situation arising out of the incident that left 14 civilians dead in a firing by security personnel in two separate incidents occurred on Saturday and Sunday and the death of security personnel in a mob attack in Tizit area of Mon district in Nagaland.