Ground Zero Report
Unprovoked firing by the Army upon a pick-up vehicle resulting in the death of 15 civilians in Nagaland’s Mon district has caused widespread anger and outrage , reports Nava Thakuria
Voices against the brutal Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA) were never thin in northeast India. Years back, Manipur witnessed massive uprising against the draconian law that empowers the security personnel, engaged in counter insurgency operations, to act according to their conveniences in disturbed areas with all impunity from the civilian courts. T Manorama Devi and Sharmila Irom Channu emerged as almost deities in the Meitei society during the uproarious anti-AFSPA situation in the region.
Lately the issue became alive and flashier with the incident of Oting village in Nagaland, where 14 civilians lost their lives under the complicity of AFSPA. From local villages to State level organizations, north-eastern to national and international institutions have now come forward raising voices against the six decade old Act urging its urgent repeal and some putting a unique challenge to the Union government in New Delhi for implementing the law in terror-stricken central Indian provinces.
Disturbing news broke from Nagaland’s Mon district on 4 December 2021, where the security forces opened fire on a vehicle carrying a group of village youths from daily work at Tiru valley coal mine. The 21 para-commandos of Indian Army, following an input about the movement of some armed insurgents in Tiru-Oting rural area, laid an ambush. Soon the vehicle of youths arrived there and the security personnel ordered it to stop. But the vehicle reportedly did not slow down and so they fired at it suspecting that insurgents were travelling in it.
Six passengers inside the vehicle died on the spot and two were seriously injured. Soon after realizing the mistake that no passenger was carrying any arms or ammunition, the security personnel took the injured villagers to a nearby hospital. But the incident created massive uproars among the villagers and they even targeted the security forces in different places. Within two days, eight other villagers were killed in the protest demonstrations whereas one Assam Rifles soldier also lost his life. Residents of Oting, which lost 12 villagers in the series of incidents, came out under the apex body of tribes (Konyak Union) with the strong demand to revoke AFSPA immediately. Joining the chorus of civil society groups, human rights organizations, political party leaders of the region besides Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio and his Meghalaya counterpart (Conrad K Sangma) also demanded its repeal.
