Killing of 7 civilians in Nagaland a case of mistaken identity, says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday spoke in Lok Sabha on the Nagaland firing incident and said that the case was of the mistaken identity as Army had received information on the movement of extremists in Oting, in Mon district and on suspicion of the vehicle carrying extremists, it was fired upon.

Shah said, “Army had received information on the movement of extremists in Oting, in Mon district. On that basis, 21 commandos laid an ambush in the 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.”

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

Shah added that as a result, one jawan of the security forces died. Many other jawans were injured. “Security forces had to resort to firing for self-defence and to disperse the crowd. This caused the death of 7 more civilians, some others injured. Local administration-Police tried to bring the situation to normalcy,” he said while giving the details of the incident.

“The current situation is tense but under control. On 5th Dec, Nagaland DGP and Commissioner visited the site. FIR has been registered and keeping seriousness in mind, probe has been handed over to State Crime Police Station. The SIT has been constituted and has been directed to complete the probe within a month,” the Home Minister said.

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Sunday ordered a high-level probe into the reported killings of civilians by security forces and the government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the matter.

The Indian Army has expressed regret over the incident and said it is being investigated at the highest level.