The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) paid its respects and honoured the victims killed in Tiru-Oting area under Nagaland’s Mon district during an operation by the paramilitary forces of the Indian Army on December 4, 2021.
On Saturday, the NSF, an influential organisation reiterated its condemnation of the act of the security forces at Oting shielded by the AFSPA regime which has been “causing terror in the hearts and minds of the Naga people” for the past several decades.
“We demand to the government of India that justice be delivered to the victims and family members of the gruesome Oting incident and to all the pending cases related to the excesses committed by the Indian armed forces without further ado,” the federation said in a statement on Saturday.
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NSF further appealed to the Centre to repeal AFSPA completely from Nagaland and said, “The Federation sees no rationale as to why the Naga homeland within India is tagged as ‘disturbed areas’ and the repressive AFSPA is thrust upon its people when the Indo-Naga political dialogue’s been held at the Prime Minister’s level is at a very crucial stage,” they said.
“It is only because of AFSPA that the Indian armed forces continue to operate with impunity in complete disregard of all humane values and virtues,” the student body said.
Towards this, it demanded that the draconian law be repealed once and for all and that human rights are restored in the Naga homeland.
NSF further reaffirmed its earlier resolution to extend non-cooperation towards the security forces until AFSPA is repealed. It also asked all its federating units to symbolically observe December 4 as the remembrance day of the victims of the Oting massacre.
In the shooting that took place in Tiru-Oting area under Nagaland’s Mon district on December 4, 2021, 13 civilians were massacred at the hands of paramilitary forces in a case of mistaken identity.
Nagaland government’s special investigation team (SIT) which probed the incident named 30 personnel of the 21st para special forces of the Indian Army in its charge sheet submitted to the court on May 30, 2022. However, prosecution sanction was not given by the concerned ministry.
The chain of events following the killing of the civilians revived a public outcry across Nagaland for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) which grants security forces impunity to carry out anti-insurgent operations in the region.
Amid a nationwide uproar, the central government in March this year partially lifted the contentious Act in several pockets of the region including the areas of 15 police stations within Nagaland.
