SIT submits report on Naga ambush; make it public, demands civil society

Several Naga civil society organisations and students bodies have demanded to make the report public which was submitted to the state government by the SIT on January 9.

Nagaland:The Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to probe the killing of 14 civilians in December in an allegedly botched Army ambush in Mon district, has submitted its preliminary report to the Nagaland government on January 9, four days after the stipulated time.

Following it, several Naga civil society organisations and students bodies have demanded to make the report public. Global Naga Forum (GNF) Convenor Chuba Ozukum said the findings of the SIT should be made public for all to understand the reality.

Naga Students’ Federation, an influential body of Naga students and youths in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, also said the report should be in the public domain. A Dimapur-based organisation of the Konyak tribe also raised the same demand.

Thirteen of the 14 people killed by army personnel on December 4 and 5 belonged to the Konyak tribe, one of the major tribes of Nagaland. They were killed in three consecutive episodes of firing by security forces, the first of which has been claimed to be a case of mistaken identity.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had told the Lok Sabha that the army had received information on the movement of insurgents in Mon and ’21 Para Commando’ unit had laid an ambush. “A vehicle was signalled to stop but it tried to speed away. Suspecting the presence of insurgents in the vehicle, the security personnel opened fire, leading to the death of six of its eight occupants,” Shah said.

Regretting the death of the civilians, he had said security forces fired in self-defence. Eight others, including an army man, were killed in subsequent clashes between the force and villagers. Several political parties have contested the government version that the vehicle was asked to stop.

Read:As Nagaland mourns Mon killings, aspiration for normalcy stays a distant dream

(With agency inputs)