Nagaland firing: Amit Shah to give statement in both Houses of Parliament

In all,13 civilians were gunned down by security forces in Nagaland's Mon district while one soldier also died in rioting which followed.

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will give a statement on the Nagaland firing incident in both the Houses of Parliament on Monday. Some Naga youth were reportedly killed at Oting village in Mon district of Nagaland on Saturday when they were allegedly fired at by security forces, who suspected them to be militants.

As a result, enraged villagers torched vehicles of security forces while some people were reportedly shot when security forces opened fire to control them. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Sunday ordered a high-level investigation into the reported killings of civilians by security forces. Similarly, the government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the incident.

It may be recalled that the Indian Army has expressed its regret over the incident. A day after the incident, the State government prohibited all mobile internet, data services, bulk SMS of all providers in the entire area of Mon district with immediate effect. The Union Home Minister expressed anguish over the incident and conveyed condolences to bereaved families.

Meanwhile, the killing of at least 16 Naga Konyak tribesmen and injury to at least a score--of whom the condition of about four is known to be serious--in firing by soldiers of the Army’s 21 Para and Assam Rifles troopers near Oting village in Nagaland’s Mon district on Saturday couldn’t have come at a worse time for the government and is snowballing into a much bigger issue.

The killing in a possible case of mistaken identity comes at a time when the Naga peace talks are stuck in a state of limbo with no substantial progress after having kick-started in 1997 with the Isak-Muivah faction of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) amid obvious fault-lines of division along tribal lines within the larger Naga community. After some initial progress despite a framework agreement signed between the government and the NSCN (IM) in 2015, the status of the talks is now unclear.