Nagaland Firing: Father Of 2-month-old Baby, Man Married For Just 9 Days Among Those Killed

In Nagaland's Oting village, grief had many faces last evening. A woman widowed 9 days after her wedding. A fatherless 2-month-old baby. A father battling cancer. A mother who thought her sons would look after her in her old age.

Botched security operation

Everything lost within a few moments on Saturday, when 12 villagers were killed in an army ambush gone horribly wrong. Violence started when an army patrol in Mon district mistook a group of labourers for militants and opened fire, killing six on December 4.

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Early that evening, personnel from the 21 Para Special Forces of the Army had opened fire on a vehicle carrying miners home, apparently mistaking them for militants. Six miners were killed. Hours later, as news of the killings spread, angry residents closed in on the army vehicles, killing one soldier. The army opened fire again, killing seven civilians this time.

Later, the grief-stricken farewell

Some 300 km from Nagaland capital Kohima, hundreds of villagers said their farewells to 12 young men from the village. The army called it a "case of mistaken identity" but locals reject the claim.

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Hokup Konyak

On November 25, Hokup Konyak, a 38-year-old coal miner, married Monglong Konyak. The wedding was held in the hahshahapang, or village square, in Oting in Nagaland¡¯s Mon district. Everyone in the village attended.

Nine days later, he was killed. Eleven days later, his funeral was held in the same village square. ¡°He was buried just a few metres away from where we got married,¡± 35-year-old Monglong told Scroll.

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At their home in Oting, Monglong had heard gunshots and could not reach her husband on the phone. Worried, she called neighbours in the village and learnt he had been injured.

When she finally got through to him, he was already fading. ¡°I don¡¯t have the strength to speak now, I¡¯ll speak to you later,¡± Hokup had told her. That would be the last time they spoke.

Langtun Konyak

The 36-years-old Langtun Konyak, a farmer and part-time coal miner, married Ngamlem in September last year and they were blessed with a daughter two months ago.

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¡°He was a good son and sole breadwinner for the family,¡± his father said over a video call. That was all of the shattered family could convey as his widowed daughter-in-regulation Ngamlem sat on a chair, cradling her newborn and staring into the blankness.

Shomwang

A few houses away, Chemwang, cancer patient cannot believe that the son who took care of him is now gone.

Shomwang had bought a pick-up truck and used to drive it for a living. He used to ferry villagers from a coal mine in Tiru area. On Saturday, when the special forces ambushed his truck - allegedly believing it was hiding insurgents -- he died on the spot with five others.

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"They killed my innocent son...I am broken inside . I don't know what I will do. I have been unwell, he used to take care of me... he is gone. I will go mad, what will I do... why did they do this," Chemwang moans.

Amid outrage over the mistaken killings, the Nagaland government will write to the Centre calling for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), a law that gives sweeping powers to the army in troubled regions.

Nagaland has also decided to call off the Hornbill Festival, an annual event that draws thousands of domestic and foreign tourists. Today was the seventh day of the signature 10-day event.

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