As Nagaland is bracing for the General Elections on 27 February 2023, an atrocious incident of pre-poll violence took place on Thursday afternoon where supporters of NDPP candidate Tongpang Ozukum from 24 Angetyongpang Assembly Constituency were allegedly ambushed and fired upon by unknown miscreants.

The incident reportedly took place at around 1:00 pm between Tsurangmen and Yisemyong area under Mokokchung District.

According to inputs, around 4 rounds of shots were targeted at the supporters of Ozukum who were enroute Mokokchung from Mongsenyimti village. As per reports, two vehicles were damaged and some minor injuries were reported however no major casualties were reported from the incident.

A First Information Report (FIR) was filed by one Imkongtemjen Longkumer, an eye witness, on behalf of the victims at Police Station-1 under Mokokchung district. In the FIR, the attackers have been mentioned as supporters of S. Maongkaba Ozukum, the candidate of National People’s Party from 24 Angetyongpang A/C.

The FIR stated that a group of persons, seated in their respective vehicles, intercepted the vehicles of the NDPP supporters from both ends of the road and began pelting stones and later fired bullets.

The report read, “After this chain of assaults meted at us by them, the unidentified persons scrammed to their respective vehicles and ran away. At this juncture, while running away, an alto lx car (NL 03 5161) belonging to the attackers were unable to escape and flipped over, the attackers were able to ran away without being noticed.”

The survivors of the heinous event appealed the concerned authority to look into the matter and take immediate necessary actions as this “ambush was an attempt to kill the occupant and the ambush is not a matter of mere accident, but with intent to cause serious crime.”

Further, the eye witness, through a statement from the media cell, NDPP, Mokokchung rejected the claims made by a reporter that blank shots were fired by the bodyguard of a candidate.

“I’d like to clarify that the statement of a news reporter that the body-guard of a candidate exited from his car and fired blank shots is not true,” Longkumer stated.

It may be mentioned here that in another incident in a district, a man hailing from Chungtia village was found murdered by unrecognised persons on 22 February. It is not ascertained yet whether the case is related to the forthcoming Nagaland election but investigation is progress.