A member of the army, even if serving in a region where AFSPA is enforced, has to follow the law. The law says that unprovoked, the security cannot shoot to kill or injure any person, civilian or militant – which is what happened in Oting in December 2021.
The Nagaland Police has informed that the department of Military Affairs under the Ministry of Defence has refused to grant permission to prosecute 30 army personnel, who were allegedly involved in a botched counter-insurgency operation in Nagaland in December 2021, in which 13 young men were killed.
The memories of that fateful December 4, when a botched army operation claimed 14 lives in an alleged case of mistaken identity, still pervade in this tiny hamlet of Nagaland.