Smruti D

On 4 December 2021, soldiers from the 21 Para Special Forces army unit shot and killed six coal miners, who were returning home, in an area between Tiru and Oting village in Nagaland’s Mon district. The army later termed it as an incident of ‘mistaken identity,’ as the soldiers mistook the miners for militants. The miners were returning home in a vehicle on December 4.

Prime Minister Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh during their first in Nagaland to meet Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) in 2017

The incident triggered violence in the area, in which eight more civilians were killed after security forces allegedly opened fire. A soldier succumbed to injuries in the violence, The killing of civilians has been condemned by local civil society organisations, Naga outfits, national political parties and the state government.

The Naga insurgency has been the oldest ongoing insurgency in India. The incident has cast a dark shadow over a peace deal which was in the making since 1997 and finally came to be signed on 3 August 2015.

The Nagaland Peace Accord was signed between the government of India and the Isak-Muivah faction of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim also known as the NSCN (I-M) to put an end to insurgency in the region while accepting certain demands put forward by the NSCN faction for Nagaland. The signing was done between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and general secretary of the NSCN-IM Thuingaleng Muivah. The then interlocutor, N. Ravi was present at the event. After the signing of the Framework Agreement (FA), both sides maintained secrecy about its contents. The NSCN-IM had entered a ceasefire agreement with the Centre in 1997 and the two sides had held over 100 rounds of talks within and outside the country. Eventually, when the FA was made public, it had two versions. One, which was released on behalf of the Centre by then interlocutor N. Ravi and another by the NSCN.

In November 2017, the Centre also began talks with a working committee, named the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) comprising the political groups GPRN/NSCN, Federal Government of Nagaland, Naga National Council (parent body), Nation