Major General to head army inquiry into civilian killings in Nagaland
The Indian Army has set up a court of inquiry into the killings of 13 civilians in a botched counter-insurgency operation in Nagaland’s Mon district on Saturday, officials familiar with the matter said on Monday
The Indian Army has set up a court of inquiry into the killings of 13 civilians in a botched counter-insurgency operation in Nagaland’s Mon district on Saturday, officials familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The inquiry will be headed by a major general, the officials said. The two-star officer is currently posted in the country’s Northeast.
On Saturday, army personnel gunned down seven coal mine workers after mistaking them to be insurgents. Soon after the incident, angry villagers reached the spot and set ablaze two security vehicles, sparking off another round of firing by forces to control the situation in which several villagers and a soldier died.
The gunning down of the civilians renewed the demand for the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) from the state. The Act, which grants special powers to the forces to maintain public order in “disturbed areas”, has been a contentious issue in the northeastern state, with civil society members saying that it gives security personnel impunity to carry out excesses and forces saying that it helps them maintain order in restive areas.
The AFSPA bestows sweeping powers on the forces and prohibits prosecutions from being initiated without the go-ahead from the Centre, if the allegations are linked to the public duty of the accused.
The Nagaland government on Sunday banned mobile internet and SMS services in the region to curb “circulation of inflammatory videos, pictures or text”.
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A notification issued by the state home department banning the services alluded to the “apprehension of grave law and order problems” in the district and said “short message service (SMS), WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms could be used for spreading of rumours, fake news and for circulating inflammatory text, pictures, videos etc, which may inflame passions and thus exacerbate the law-and-order situation.”
The incident has turned the spotlight on the security situation in the Northeast and the conduct of counter-insurgency operations by security forces.
Armed militants last month ambushed an Assam Rifles convoy near the porous India-Myanmar border in Manipur’s Churachandpur district, killing five soldiers including a colonel, his wife and their eight-year-old son.