A year on, kin of slain villagers await justice in Nagaland

Since the botched operation in Mon district of Nagaland on December 4, 2021, the soldiers deployed for area domination across the Northeast have been abstaining from shooting first

Last year, days of ahead of Christmas, the Indian Army commandos had gunned down six coal miners near Oting village in Mon district of Nagaland on December 4 after “mistaking” them for the members of an extremist outfit. A year has passed since, but the scars have not quite healed for the villagers, awaiting for justice for the families of 12 of their men killed in a botched Army operation.

Eight others – six from the same village, one commando and another person from Upper Tiru village – were killed on the spot when the villagers retaliated.

Meanwhile, the 15 th person was killed in firing in district headquarters Mon, about 65 km from Oting, the following day when an irate mob attacked an Assam Rifles camp.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the Oting killings, the Konyak Union (KU) criticised the Centre for not sanctioning the prosecution of the Army personnel guilty of snuffing out the lives of the villagers. The union represents the Konyaks, the Naga tribe the slain men belonged to.

“The Nagaland government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that conducted a probe and filed the chargesheet naming 30 soldiers, including a major. But there has been no attempt since to prosecute or book the culprits,” H.A. Hongnao Konyak, KU vice-president, said.

“We also don’t know what happened to the internal probe the Army had conducted. What we know is that justice has eluded the families of the victims since no one has been punished yet,” he said.