India: BJP Ally Condemns Home Minister's Statement on Nagaland Violence

A botched anti-insurgency operation and retaliatory violence resulted in the death of 14 civilians and one soldier last week in the Indian state of Nagaland on the easternmost fringes of the country near the border with Myanmar.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) ally, the National People's Party, has accused federal Home Minister Amit Shah of twisting facts about the death of civilians killed by armed forces in the northeastern Indian state's Mon District recently.

"We condemn Home Minister Amit Shah's remark that he made in the parliament on Monday,, National People's Party President Dr. Andrew Ahoto told Sputnik. "Shah has deviated facts and twisted them".

Dr. Ahoto's statement followed the deadly incident, which occurred over the weekend, as well as Shah's subsequent remarks on Monday.

Last Saturday, India's security forces left six people dead when they opened fire at a van in which villagers were returning home from their mine. Later, angry villagers attacked the army camps, which led to the death of eight more people - seven civilians and one soldier - in the clashes. One more villager died during a violent confrontation between the two sides on Sunday.

Commenting on the incident on Monday, the Home Minister said that "security forces had signalled the vehicle to stop, but it had sped away".

According to the National People's Party president, however, that was not the case. "Shah's claim that vehicle was asked to stop was incorrect," Ahoto said. "There were no security checkpoints near the village (where the attack took place) nor were the victims trying to flee."

Earlier this week, one of the survivors of the attack told the Indian Express daily: "We were not signalled [at] to stop. They killed (shot at) us directly. We were not trying to flee…we were just in the vehicle."

Many media reports also report that BJP's Mon District President Nyawang Konyak, has expressed his own dissatisfaction over Home Minister Shah's statement; he categorically said, "The statement by Amit Shah that they didn't stop at the check gates and were trying to flee, is a lie."