Longkhojan village , an Arunachal Pradesh village bordering Assam, residents have complained to the local administration about alleged atrocities by a unit of the Indian Army. According to the villagers, an army search operation on the night of November 18 left several people injured. The operation reportedly carried out by a group of army personnel from Dhangrikumar area in Assam’s Charaideo district, took place in Longkhojan village under the Kanubari division of Arunachal’s Longding district. The local police were not with the army.
Villagers told the extra assistant commissioner (EAC) of the Kanubari division, who visited the area on November 19, that the body of one Kamchan Wangpan, a militant of the armed group NSCN (Unification) who was from the neighbouring village Langkhew, was brought to their village by militants. They asked some villagers at gunpoint to carry the body up to Rangula village. November 18, the army group arrived in the village, ordered the men to assemble in an open area and kept them the entire night without food, water or warm clothing. The detainees, reportedly 23 in number, were let off on November 19 morning after signatures of the village head and pastor were taken on blank sheets, with their official seals.
The incident led Longding district commissioner Vikram Singh Malik to forward the EAC’s report to the state chief secretary on November 20. Meanwhile, several local civil society and student groups have condemned the incident and sought an investigation into it. MP from the state Ninong Erring has also written to the prime minister seeking action against the guilty officials.
The Longding district is among three highly sensitive border districts of Arunachal Pradesh, where as many as six armed groups are said to have their presence. On November 13, an Assam Rifles unit reportedly apprehended two NSCN (Isak-Muivah) operatives during an early morning operation in the Longding district.
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