Staff Reporter
KOLAGAON, 21 Mar: One civilian, Riattu Kakho (51), of Kolagaon village in Bari Basip circle of Tirap district, was killed while another person, Pakngam Lowang, was injured in a gunfire exchange between the 6th Assam Rifles (AR) personnel and NSCN (IM) operatives here in Tirap district on Sunday.
In the incident, one NSCN (IM) operative was killed, while one self-styled (SS) private, identified as Jenlong Waktham (27), was apprehended by the 6th AR. Another operative, SS sergeant Ashang Tangkhul reportedly managed to flee the spot.
As per sources, the incident occurred at around 11:30 am on Sunday when three NSCN (IM) operatives arrived from Namsa in Mon district of Nagaland via Deomali and asked a few villagers to escort them towards the boundary of Changlang district. However, while they were around 500 metres away from Kolagaon village, in the jungle, they were ambushed by the 6th AR personnel.
According to Inspector General of Police (Law & Order) Chukhu Apa, the Tirap police and the AR on Saturday jointly launched an operation, based on intelligence input about the presence of the NSCN (IM) operatives in the area. After they reached the spot, a gun battle started between the two sides, which continued till Sunday.
The IGP further stated that an AK-56 rifle with a magazine, one 5.56 mm M4A1 carbine made in the US, a 32 mm pistol, a huge cache of ammunition and other warlike stores were recovered from the encounter site.
Meanwhile, massive protests were staged in Khonsa, Deomali and Changlang towns on Monday over the killing of the civilian in the crossfire. Hundreds joined rallies and candlelight marches organised by student organisations and community-based organisations to condemn the use of civilians as human shields by the NSCN groups, and to demand the ouster of all NSCN groups from Tirap, Changlang and Longding (TCL) region.
A 12-hour bandh (from 6 am to 6 pm) was also imposed in entire Tirap district on Monday by various student organisations.
Tirap DC Taro Mize informed The Arunachal Times that the bandh call and the rallies passed off peacefully, with no reports of any untoward incident.
The DC informed that the postmortem of the victim has been completed and the district administration also provided Rs 50,000 as immediate relief to the victim’s family.
“The injured person (Pakngam Lowang), who received a bullet injury on his shoulder, is currently undergoing treatment at AMC Dibrugarh in Assam. He is in ICU but is out of danger,” he added.
The DC further stated that a magisterial inquiry into the incident has been ordered.
“I have issued an order to the ADC headquarters, H Kri to initiate a magisterial inquiry into the incident and directed him to submit the report within 15 days,” the DC informed.
Meanwhile, the Wancho Students’ Union (WSU) on Monday strongly condemned the incident and sought early intervention of the authority concerned in order to deliver justice to the victim’s family.
Terming the incident unfortunate, the WSU in a press statement said, “We strongly condemn such incident in the region. The enforcement of Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (28 of 1958) in the TCL is affecting the normal life there. The general public is often the victim in the conflict between the NSCN groups and the security forces. Harassment and torturing of the public is not the way to bring peaceful solution, it only suppresses the people’s rights. People have numerous times raised their voices but their voices were repeatedly curtailed in different ways. We strongly appeal to the concerned authority to kindly intervene in the matter in order to deliver justice to the victim’s family and find a permanent solution to the problem in the region.” (With PTI inputs)
