Major General Rank Officer to head Army Court inquiry
New Delhi: The Indian Army has ordered a court of inquiry headed by an officer of Major General rank into the Nagaland firing incident in which 14 civilians were killed, official sources said on Tuesday.
Former senior Army officers on Monday called the incident "unfortunate" and "tragic", adding that the botched up operation was likely a result of wrong intelligence.
The sources said an officer of Major General rank would head the court of inquiry to probe the operation of the 21 Para Special Forces that took place in the state's Mon district on Saturday evening.
The inquiry will focus on the "intelligence" and the "circumstances" on which Saturday's operation was based on, they noted.
"It is very unfortunate. It is apparently a foul up of intelligence. That is what it appears to me," Lieutenant General Ashok Mehta (retired) told a national news agency.
"What followed is even more tragic. The villagers were so angry that they surrounded the commandos and apparently attacked them with machetes, and in self-defence, they had to fire on them," he added.
He said that in his opinion, such an incident has never happened before in the north-east.
"This is one of the biggest foul-ups of military operations or counter-insurgency operations in recent times," Mehta added.
On Nagaland Chief Minister's Neiphiu Rio demand to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), he said: "If you repeal AFPSA, then the armed forces will not operate because they would not have any police powers or safeguards."
The paramilitaries who have police powers will operate, but they are equipped to deal with such counter-insurgency operations, he added.
The situation in Nagaland, where protests and rioting broke out after firing by security forces claimed 14 civilian lives, remained tense but calm on Tuesday as the state Cabinet met and decided to write to the Centre demanding repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
The Cabinet which met in an emergency sitting under the leadership of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Tuesday also called off the ongoing Hornbill Festival in protest against the killing, state ministers said.
The 10-day Hornbill Festival, the state's largest tourism extravaganza held at Naga Heritage Village in Kisama near the state capital, was scheduled to end on December 10.
During the meeting, the Cabinet was briefed about the action taken following the killing, including setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by an IGP rank officer and grant of ex-gratia to the next of kin of the deceased by the state and Central governments, ministers Neiba Kronu and Temjen Imna Along later told reporters. The Cabinet has directed the SIT to complete the investigation within a month, they said.
