''Bullets were coming from all directions," says: Mr Konyak, A Survivor of Nagaland Tragedy

Mr Konyak testimonial is crucial evidence for SIT

Days after the Nagaland tragic incident which swallowed 14 innocents by the mistaken identity crises by the Army elites, one of the survivors said, ''Bullets were coming from all directions, not only from the jawans who were fleeing.''

Chongmei Konyak had seen it all before - his training as an Indian Army jawan instinctively kicked in.

Caught in the middle of the cross-fire, Mr Konyak hit the deck, crawling to safety. "I rolled down to a nallah to save myself.''

A few metres away, Army soldiers, all members of the elite 21 Para Special Forces, had opened fire after being surrounded by furious villagers who were reacting to the death of six men from Oting, the village that they lived in. In the firing that left Mr Konyak injured, seven villagers were killed, taking the death count to 13.

Just hours earlier, this same unit of jawans fired on a pick-up truck, in an ambush meant to target militants. Except, the men they shot turned out to be innocent villagers, who worked in mines nearby.

As the situation grew tenser, dozens of villagers attacked the Army jawans with machetes. One soldier was killed. The others retaliated in self-defence. In this, they may have been supported by other commandos who were in concealed positions in the vicinity of the incident.

As per Mr Konyak, who was in the army till 2011 also had been commissioned into the Army Service Corps and was in uniform for fifteen years, said, "I am trained in the Army, so even in that chaos, I could make out where the bullets were coming from."

Mr Konyak, who is now in hospital, is recovering from a gunshot wound that he received in the melee.

"I realised that there was gunfire also coming from the jungles. Para Special Forces jawans who had night-vision devices were firing. We could not see them but they saw what was happening.''

Mr Konyak's testimony is a crucial part of the evidence being collected by the Special Investigation Team looking into the tragedy in Nagaland.

The SIT, headed by Inspector General of Police Limasunup Jamir, is probing charges of murder and attempt to murder, which was filed in a First Information Report against the Army soldiers on December 5.

While the SIT has been permitted to record statements from the jawans involved in the botched ambush, the soldiers cannot be prosecuted without clearance from the Home Ministry.

Soldiers fighting militancy in parts of the Northeast are protected by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which provides immunity from arrest and prosecution. According to the Nagaland Police, permission to record statements of the Army jawans came after ''multiple summonses'' were sent ''to examine Army and Assam Rifles personnel between 18.12.2021 and 28.12.2021.''