Office of major general rank to head Army's court of inquiry into Nagaland firing incident

New Delhi, December 7

The 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.

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 would focus on the "intelligence" and the "circumstances" on which Saturday's operation was based, 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 PTI.

"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 at them," he added.

He said that in his opinion, such an incident had 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 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." PTI

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