Home Minister Amit Shah misled Parliament on Nagaland, claims Adhir Chowdhury

Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah (Illustration: Suneesh K)

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday claimed that Home Minister Amit Shah had “misled” the Lok Sabha when he said that security forces had opened fire on civilians in Nagaland after they tried to flee.

He also said that a Congress delegation on a visit to Nagaland was stopped at Jorhat by the district officials.

“Inside the House, the home minister had given a misleading statement when he said those people who were shot dead had tried to flee after being signalled to stop,” Chowdhury said in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour.

“Those people who have been admitted to the hospital have said ‘direct marise’. It means they have been shot directly,” he said.

Chowdhury said Congress President Sonia Gandhi had constituted a delegation comprising Lok Sabha members Gaurav Gogoi and Anto Antony to visit Mon village in Nagaland and share the grief of the locals whose family members were killed in the firing by security forces.

“The Congress leaders were stopped from visiting Mon district. This government stops us from visiting Lakhimpuri Kheri. This government stops us from visiting Nagaland. The situation is deteriorating in the entire northeast,” Chowdhury said.

Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said the issue raised by Chowdhury pertained to the state government and not the Lok Sabha.

On Monday, the home minister had expressed regret over the death of 14 civilians in Nagaland’s Mon district in three consecutive episodes of firing by security forces, the first of which was a case of mistaken identity.

Narrating the sequence of events, Shah had told the Lok Sabha on Monday that the Army had received information on the movement of insurgents in Mon and '21 Para Commando' unit had laid an ambush.

A vehicle was signalled to stop but it tried to speed away. Suspecting the presence of insurgents in the vehicle, the security personnel opened fire, he had said.

Six out of eight occupants of the vehicle died in the firing by security forces, Shah had said, adding that later, it was found to be “a case of mistaken identity”.

(With PTI inputs)