Indian security forces killed 13 civilians in the northeastern state of Nagaland when they fired on a truck and later shot at a crowd that had gathered to protest the attack, police said yesterday.
“The situation in the entire Mon District is very tense right now. We have 13 confirmed deaths, which include one laborer from outside Nagaland,” said Nagaland Police Officer Sandeep M. Tamgadge of Saturday’s incident.
Six laborers were killed returning home by troops who had set up an ambush, Tamgadge said.
Family members later went looking for the missing men and confronted security forces after finding the bodies.
“They then went to the local security forces to challenge and question them about the dead,” Tamgadge said. “This is where a confrontation happened between the two sides, and the security personnel fired, killing seven more people.”
The Indian army said in a statement that it was acting on “credible intelligence” in pursuing insurgents operating in the area.
One member of the security forces was killed in the later incident and others had been wounded, it added.
“The cause of the unfortunate loss of lives is being investigated at the highest level and appropriate action will be taken as per the course of law,” the statement said.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio ordered a probe into the killings, writing on Twitter: “The unfortunate incident leading to the killing of civilians at Oting is highly condemnable.”
Local community leader Nyamtow Konyak said that those killed were coal miners.
Indian Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah expressed anguish over the “unfortunate incident,” saying that the state government would investigate the killings.
An army officer said the soldiers had laid an ambush for a week following intelligence that insurgents were planning to attack soldiers in the area, 400km east of Gauhati, the capital of Assam State.
In India’s remote northeast, government forces are battling dozens of ethnic insurgent groups, whose demands range from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India.
Additional reporting by AP
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