Why is the Nagaland government seeking action against 30 army personnel?
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00:00It was 4th December, 2021. A group of coal miners in Nagaland's Oating village were returning home after a day's work.
00:07Suddenly, their vehicle was under fire from bullets.
00:11Firing the bullets was an army unit that thought they were catching militants unaware.
00:15It was a unit of the 21 Paro Special Forces.
00:18There were 8 people in the vehicle they shot at. 6 of them died on the spot.
00:30This happened in the Mon district. The army was acting on intelligence inputs to ambush militants.
00:37Home Minister Amit Shah said that the forces took the two persons who had survived their operation to a nearby medical centre.
00:44The body of those slain, 6 labours, were shifted to another minitrack and wrapped under the tarpaulin.
00:54Home Minister Amit Shah said that when the other villagers found out what had happened, they surrounded the army unit and burnt two vehicles in protest.
01:02Since the blood stain was in the ambush vehicle, they searched for the dead body and the phone beneath the tarpaulin.
01:12So the villagers hesitated and tried to take back the dead body and there was a scuffle between 21 Paro troopers and the villagers.
01:25According to the Times of India, 7 more civilians and a soldier were killed in this new clash.
01:30The next day, protesters attacked an army camp and the forces killed another civilian, according to the BBC.
01:36The situation in the state became tense. Curfews were placed and internet services were suspended to bring the situation under control.
01:46A police officer at the Tizi police station in Mon district filed a Suvamoto FIR saying the army officers didn't try to identify the people in the car.
01:56His FIR said, security forces blankly opened fire at the vehicle without any provocation.
02:02The Nagaland police filed charges against 30 officers in the 21 Paro special forces in May 2022.
02:08The charge sheet accused the soldiers of not following the standard operating procedure and rules of engagement and indiscriminate and disproportionate firing.
02:16It held the soldiers responsible for murder, attempt to murder and destruction of evidence.
02:22A special investigation team of the Nagaland police came to the conclusion that the soldiers had shocked the minors with a clear intention to kill.
02:30Seven months after the incident, the wives of some of the accused soldiers asked the Supreme Court to quash the FIR against their husbands.
02:38The Supreme Court took notice and stated proceedings against them because a sanction from the Centre had not been taken.
02:44The accused soldiers were discharged in duties under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
02:48Section 6 of the Act states that no prosecution, suit or legal proceedings can be brought against anyone operating under this Act without a sanction from the Central Government.
02:59Nagaland was one of the Indian states in which AFSPA had been put in place since the late 1950s.
03:05This law allowed the army to use force or shoot at anyone even causing death if they were found to be violating the law or carrying arms,
03:13to arrest people without warrants on reasonable suspicion and to search places without warrants.
03:20We are India, the biggest democratic country in the world and this is a draconian law.
03:25In July 2024, the Nagaland government moved to the Supreme Court challenging the Centre on their refusal to approve the sanction.
03:32This time, the Apex Court ordered the Centre and Defence Ministry to respond within four weeks.
03:38The army has expressed great sorrow over the death of innocent civilians.
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