An Army team headed by an officer of the Major-General rank on Wednesday visited the site of the botched encounter at Mon district of Nagaland as part of the Court of Inquiry (CoI) into the incident that occurred on December 4. A separate inquiry by a special investigation team, ordered by the State government, is also on.

In a statement, the Army said its team inspected the site at Oting village to understand the circumstances under which the incident could have happened.

“The team took along the witnesses for better understanding of the situation and how events would have unfolded. Subsequently, the team was also present at Tizit Police Station, Mon district, between 1330 to 1500 hours on Wednesday to meet a cross-section of society to obtain valuable information pertaining to the incident,” the statement said.

The Army said it had requested twice through public notices regarding any person having information, to directly share it, either by being present before the inquiry team at the Tizit police station or any input, photo or video related to the incident shared with them via phone, SMS or WhatsApp. The information may also be shared in person to the inquiry team at Dinjan Military Station in Assam, the statement said.

The Army reiterated that the CoI was progressing expeditiously and all efforts were on to conclude it at the earliest.

Few days back, the Army said they were fully cooperating with the SIT and sharing the required details in a timely manner.

Fourteen civilians and a soldier were killed, six civilians in firing by security forces in a case of mistaken identity and others in the violence that erupted as angry locals attacked security forces.