Kohima, December 8 (MExN): The Naga Hoho, citing eyewitnesses, said that the December 4 killings at Oting were not a case of “mistaken identity as claimed but rather it was intentional.”
In a press release on Wednesday, the Naga Hoho Media Cell informed that a delegation led by its President HK Zhimomi visited to Oting village on December 7, to extend solidarity and support to the victims and gather first-hand information. “The eye witnesses of the incident apprised the Naga Hoho delegation that, the genocide was not a mistaken identity as claimed but rather it was intentional for the reasons best known to the Indian Security Forces and their political masters,” it said.
Basing on its interactions with the villagers, the release stated that the villagers have no connection with either the Naga National Political Groups or the Indian Security Forces. Eyewitnesses said that when the victims were returning to their village from work, “Security Forces laid ambush and indiscriminately fired upon the civilians despite the victims shouting that they were innocent public.” Six of the labourers were killed on the spot, it said.
It also claimed that villagers who rushed to the spot had found security personnel trying to hide the dead bodies in their vehicles “by wrapping the death bodies by the uniforms of Jawans to bluff the people that the slain persons were Naga National Political groups [sic].”
When the angry villagers, “after identifying their men and started charging the Jawans, once again the Jawans started indiscriminate firing at the public and thereby killed another 7 persons on the spot and injured many more,” the release stated.
The Naga Hoho stated that the villagers condemned the distorted statement of Union Home Minister in the parliament, wherein he “misled the House by saying that the incident was a mistaken identity and also on self-defence.” This, it said, hurt the sentiments of the victims’ families and the village of Oting. “The public demand the Union Home Minister to apologize publicly or take full responsibility for killing innocent public without any rhyme or reason,” it added.
