Month after botched op, Nagaland's wounds refuse to heal

Sheiwang Konyak, 22, has lost vision in his right eye after a retinal detachment.

- Alice Yhoshü

KOHIMA: There are injuries on his chest and leg; he has been recovering at the district hospital for the past month.

Even then, Konyak is fortunate.

On December 4, in the botched operation based on flawed intelligence, the armed forces shot 13 civilians dead -six coal miners returning home in a van in Nagaland's Mon district, and seven others in the subsequent violence. One security personnel was also killed in the clashes, while one other civilian died at in a clash with Assam rifles the next day.

Konyak was one of the only two survivors of that first burst of fire at the van near Oting village. And one month later, he only longs for one thing: “I just want to go home." The vision in his eye may now be impaired, but the sights and sounds from that night flash before him constantly.

“We were returning from the coal fields, when I heard gunshots. Some of my friends fell down. I got shot in my stomach and arm, and got injured in my leg and eye too. We didn't even get the chance to jump out of the van," he said.

Konyak lost consciousness, and when he came to, he was at the district hospital, where he has been since.

Over the course of a month, there have been multiple surgeries, the pain has heightened his anguish at not being able to mourn with the families of the friends he lost. "I don't know how Christmas and New Year's Day went by. I don't know anything anymore. I just want to go home and cry," he said from his hospital bed.

Back home in Oting, there have been no festivities. A month later, there is anger and disbelief at an incident that brought national headlines and attention to this remote part of the North-East, and has relaunched a conversation about the continued implementation of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or Afspa, with the Nagaland assembly unanimously calling for its removal.

The incident