‘Army tried to “hide” bodies of civilians’

Former Army officers on Monday called the incident “unfortunate” and “tragic” adding that the botched up operation was likely a result of wrong intelligence

New Delhi: The Army made no attempt to ascertain the identity of the civilians returning from work on a pick-up truck before shooting them in Nagaland’s Mon district on Saturday, a joint report by the state’s Director General of Police (DGP) T John Longkumer and Commissioner Rovilatuo Mor has read. Quoting eyewitnesses, the two top officials have said villagers found the Army’s Special Forces trying to “hide” the bodies of six people by wrapping and loading them on a pick-up van with the intention of taking them to their base camp.

“On the evening of December 4 around 1610 hours, when eight villagers were returning home from coal mining work at Tiru in a pick-up truck, were ambushed and killed by Security Forces (reportedly, 21st Para Special Force based in Assam) at random, apparently without any attempt for identification,” the report, submitted to the state government on Sunday, read.

The officials said the victims were all unarmed civilians working in coal mines. Of them, six were killed on the spot and two critically injured. The report states, “On reaching the spot, the villagers found the pick-up truck and the special forces personnel trying to hide the dead bodies of the six villagers by wrapping and loading them in another pick-up truck (Tata Mobile) apparently with the intention of taking the dead bodies to their base camp.”

Violence broke out between the villagers and security forces when they discovered the bodies covered with tarpaulin sheets. Angry people then set on fire three vehicles of the security forces, the report said. The officials in their report write, “In the melee, the security personnel again opened fire against the villagers which led to the death of seven more villagers and eyewitnesses have confirmed that Special Forces personnel opened fire indiscriminately as they fled from the scene towards Assam side even firing in the coal mine hutments on the way.”

Acknowledging that the first incident was a “case of mistaken identity”, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had told Parliament on Monday, “The Government of India sincerely regrets this unfortunate incident in Nagaland and offers its deepest condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives.” The report said altogether, 13 civilians were killed on Saturday while 14 were seriously injured and eight suffered minor injuries. -(PTI)