Chaini Parwani –
Published On: December 07, 2021 at 18:10 IST
A Court of Inquiry (CoI) has been initiated by the Army and is to be headed by a Major General to investigate all the circumstances under which the botched operation by the 21 Para-Special Forces took place in the Mon District of Nagaland.
Further the Court of Inquiry (CoI) will also scrutinize the “credible intelligence” on account of which the Special Forces detachment led by a Major was deployed for the operation that in due course led to the death of at least 14 civilians and a soldier.
A Senior Officer stated “The Army has fully accepted its mistake…there was no intent to kill any civilians. The CoI will fix responsibility for acts of omission and commission.”
The 21 Para-SF, is a decorated Battalion Affiliated to the Army’s Dimapur-based 3 Corps.
The 21 Para-SF detachment involved in Saturday’s operation claims ‘a rifle-like thing’ was seen being carried by one of eight passengers in their open Mahindra pick-up truck through Surveillance devices like Spotter-Scopes from a distance on the Oting-Tiru road.
Further the commandos stated that they opened fire subsequently after the pick-up truck refused to halt despite being flagged down by their Scouts.
Furthermore, after ascertaining that the suspects were actually unarmed coal miners, and not insurgents of the Yung Aung faction of the forbidden outfit NSCN (K) as the intelligence had claimed, the commandos rushed for medical help for the two of the eight civilians who were still alive.
Later while waiting for medical and police teams, the commandos were surrounded by villagers with machetes which led to seven more civilians and a soldier being killed due to the Clash.