Indian Army institutes Court of Inquiry to probe Nagaland civilian killings

NEW DELHI: The Indian Army has instituted a Court of Inquiry to probe the Nagaland civilian killings under a Major General-rank officer, sources said on Monday.

Army sources told ANI, "Indian Army has instituted a Court of Inquiry to probe the Nagaland civilian killings under a Major General-rank officer. The officer is posted in the northeast sector only."

An Army Special Forces unit was involved in the firing after they received intelligence inputs about the movement of NSCN (KY) terrorists in the Mon district.

According to sources, "the troops opened fire at the vehicle when it was passing through a second ambush party deployed in the area. In the first instance, six civilians died while claiming to defend themselves, the troops fired at aggressively agitating civilians in which another seven to eight lost their lives."

Earlier, the Army, in a statement, expressed deep regret over the "unfortunate loss of lives" in a counter-insurgency that went awry, and added the incident is being investigated at the highest level as outrage over the killing continued.

The irate villagers torched vehicles of security forces and some people were reportedly shot when security forces opened fire to control the mob.

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Sunday ordered a high-level probe into the killings of civilians.

A day after the incident, the state government on Sunday prohibited all mobile internet, data services, bulk SMS of all providers in the entire area of the Mon district.