Dimapur - A fact-finding team constituted to look into the working of the ceasefire in Naga areas has come down heavily on the Assam Rifles that the latter attempted to “provoke” the NSCN (IM) to break the ground rules and to “fire”. It could have led to “very serious consequences for all the people of Manipur”, the report said.

The report also claimed that the “Assam Rifles clearly broke the ceasefire ground rules in both cases (Shirui and Pfutsero)” and “this had been proved beyond doubt”.  It was also stated that a section of the armed forces misled the people and ‘hid the fact’ that Shirui camp was set up with the approval of the armed forces and the Ceasefire Monitoring Group (CFMG).

Making their observations on the impact of the Shirui incident, the four-member fact finding team of  eminent lawyers termed as “disturbing” the fact that the aftermath of the Shirui incident had led to ‘communal divide between the Meiteis and Nagas with the former even demanding that the NSCN (IM) be declared a terrorist organization’.

“Such an atmosphere would only lead to the justification of militarization of Manipur”, the study pointed out. It also said those in the valley who welcomed the siege of Shirui “did not fully realize the sinister role of intelligence agencies”.

The study said ‘it could not understand why the Assam Rifles had taken the action and why they wanted to “provoke” the NSCN (IM) and “why they seemed to communalize the atmosphere in Manipur”’.

Interestingly many people in Shirui told the fact-finding team that the Shirui incident was in fact a direct fall-out of the Pfutsero incident. Going into the significance of the Pfutsero incident which took place in the first week of January 2009, the team, after detailed study, concluded that although the ceasefire ground rules specifically stated that each incident should be localized, the Assam Rifles “seem to be wanting to provoke the NSCN (IM)”.

“And soon after the Pfutsero incident they surrounded the NSCN council headquarters also known as Hebron camp” it stated.

The team also interviewed Lalthara, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) with the latter pointing out that the Nagaland government was “concerned about the way Assam Rifles are patrolling the road leading to Hebron”.

The Additional Chief Secretary reportedly told the visiting team that the “patrolling was being done in a manner which could ‘irritate’ the NSCN cadres” and that the chief minister had also expressed his concern to the Army.

The senior government official also said that “he thought that the Shirui incident was a direct fallout of the Pfutsero incident and the Assam Rifles were still angry with the fact that their officer had been disarmed even though they had admitted their mistake”. According to the study, Lalthara had tried to explain to the Assam Rifles that the Pfutsero incident was an isolated case and they should treat it like that”.