"It is a Christmas of sorrow... every house is crying today, asking for justice": a villager told NDTV
Christmas - a season of joy and festivities - has turned sour for residents of Nagaland's Oting village, who are in mourning for the 12 men killed this month in an Army op that went tragically wrong.
Villagers organised a midnight prayer - with wreaths and flowers and verses read from the Holy Bible - on Friday at the mass grave in which their loved ones are buried.
"Christmas has always been special for us... there were a lot of happy times. This year it is a Christmas of grief, horror and sorrow for those who lost their sons and family members," Chemwang Konyak, a resident of the village and one of those who lost a family member, said.
The villagers also carried placards demanding justice for those killed, condemning the Army and calling for the repeal of the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA.
12 of the 14 civilians who were killed in the botched Army ambush were from Oting village
"In our village it is a Christmas of sorrow... every house is crying today, asking for justice..." he said.
The traumatic memories of December 4 and 5 - when troops from the Army's elite 21 Para SF unit mistook Oting villagers on a truck for insurgents and opened fire - remain fresh in Nagaland.
On Tuesday villagers from Oting held a peaceful march to the site of the botched ambush.
"For all these days we were in grief... so we could not come here or didn't feel like coming. But now we have come. Church leaders also visited... We prayed together for justice," a villager told NDTV.
Protests against the killings - demanding action against the Army unit and repeal of AFSPA - have gathered momentum in the state and others in northeast India, where the law is in place.
The bodies of the 12 civilians were buried in a mass grave
Last week protests against the killings and AFSPA spread to state capital Kohima. That was after the the Eastern Nagaland Peoples' Organisation started a 'non-cooperation movement' against the Army.
The Army has expressed its regret over the killings and an internal investigation, led by an officer of Major-General rank, is underway, while the soldiers involved face a murder case filed by the police.
However, there is concern the centre will invoke AFSPA - which gives sweeping powers to military personnel in "disturbed regions" - to protect the soldier involved from legal action.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma have led calls for AFSPA to be repealed, both in their respective states and across the northeast.