In the midst of Nagaland’s Hornbill Festival, India’s Security Force / Para Commandos of the Indian Army ambushed Naga civilians, and at least 13 civilians were gunned down on Saturday, December 4, 2021, during security operations in Oting village, Mon District, Nagaland state.
The state of Nagaland is currently under India’s Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act – AFSPA– a controversial & draconian law enacted in the Indian Parliament for the first time in September 1958 based on a draconian ordinance used by the British colonial rulers during the Quit India Movement of 1942 in the context of the Naga national movement that grants military forces and the air forces operating as land forces, and includes other armed forces of the Union in “disturbed areas” “certain special powers,” including the right to shoot to kill, raid houses, and destroy any property that is “likely” to be used by suspects, and “arrest, without a warrant, any person who has committed a cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offence and may use such force as may be necessary to effect the arrest.”
With the significant immunity granted to security forces conducting operations in “disturbed areas,” the potential for abuse is high, and there have been repeated calls for the controversial law to be repealed. However, in support of the AFSPA, on September 4, 2018, the Supreme Court of India heard an unprecedented petition by 356 officers of the Indian Army seeking “total immunity from any legal action” and the freedom to shoot and kill at will civilians in “disturbed areas” by simply labelling them “insurgents, terrorists, or anti-national elements.” They say that “AFSPA empowers them to do so and that courts of law should not meddle in this. Therefore, they are asking the Supreme Court to strike down all First Information Reports (FIRs) and court-monitored investigations into fake encounters carried out under the protective umbrella of AFSPA.”
Strategically, India has adopted a strategy of development package, wait-watch-negotiate process, and continuing security operations against the Nagas, for instance, even after the first breakthrough in 1997, when the ceasefire agreement was signed between the Government of India (GoI) and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN), the political negotiation between the GoI and the NSCN to peaceful resolution was further boosted after the signing of the “historic” Indo-Naga Framework Agreement on August 3, 2015; however, the AFSPA has not been withdrawn, and security operations against Naga nationalists continue.
Lieutenant Colonel Sumit K. Sharma, PRO (Indian Defense) Kohima unit, stated on December 5, 2021, “Based on credible intelligence of likely insurgent movement, a specific operation was planned to be conducted in the area of Tiru, Mon district, Nagaland.” Thus, the incident of December 4, 2021, strongly suggested that military and intelligence assessments were flawed, and the conduct of security operations is questionable in terms of how “credible intelligence” is validated and processed. While the Government of India justified the legislation as necessary to prevent the Nagas or northeastern states from seceding from the Union of India, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi admitted in 2015 that the Indo-Naga issue is “a legacy of British Rule.” With tensions high in Nagaland over the incident, a prompt and thorough investigation into whether the killing of Naga civilians was a “necessity” or “misuse of power” is required, or, in the worst-case scenario, the security forces’ actions will be labelled as a “case of mistaken identity,” and total immunity from any legal action under AFSPA will be sought.
Author’s Disclosure Statement: Augustine R. is an independent researcher on the India-Naga-Myanmar political issue, as well as on broader global security and strategic issues, and does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article submitted & published under ICNA News Stories.
Featured Image: Angry villagers burn vehicles belonging to security personnel after 13 civilians were killed by the security forces from Assam Rifles in security operations, at Oting village under Mon district of Nagaland on December 4, 2021. | Photo Credit: PTI
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