Union home minister makes statement in Parliament over Nagaland civilian Killing incident

NEW DELHI: The Union Home Minister Amit Shah today informed the Lok Sabha that the centre regrets the deaths of 14 civilians in Nagaland after a botched Army operation.

Amit Shah while talking on the matter said, “Army had received info on movement of extremists in Oting, Mon. On that basis, 21 commandos laid an ambush in suspected area. A vehicle reached there, it was signalled to stop but it tried to flee. On suspicion of the vehicle carrying extremists, it was fired upon”

He also said,”6 out of the 8 people in vehicle died. It was later found to be a case of mistaken identity. 2 others who were injured were taken to nearest health centre by Army. After receiving news of this, local villagers surrounded the Army unit, set 2 vehicles on fire & attacked them.”

He further added, “As a result, one jawan of the security forces died; many other jawans injured. Security forces had to resort to firing for self-defence and to disperse crowd. This caused death of 7 more civilians, some others injured. Local admn-Police tried to bring the situation to normalcy.”

Speaking on the current situation in the state, Shah said that the situation is tense but it is under control. He also informed that the SIT formed has been directed to complete the probe within a month.

“After the incident, on Dec 5 evening, an agitated crowd of around 250 people vandalised the company operating base (COB) of Assam Rifles in Mon city & set the COB building on fire. Assam Rifles had to fire bullets to disperse the crowd. This caused death of one more civilian,” said Shah.

In a bid to avert any more incidents in the affected area, additional forces have been deployed.

A press statement has been issued by Army's III Corps HQ where the incident of the unfortunate deaths of innocent civilians has been regretted.

The Union Home Minister also said that the Army has taken up investigation into the reasons behind this incident at the highest level, action will be taken as per the law.