In the wee hours of 25 January 1994, Captain DPK Pillay, an Adjutant to the 8th Guards battalion of the Indian Army, was leading a patrol into Longdi Pabram, a very remote village in the insurgency-affected Tamenglong district of Manipur.
He was leading a patrolling unit into Longdi Pabram based on intelligence reports his battalion had received that four militants of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) insurgent group were hiding there. These militants reportedly had plans of blowing up a bridge and communication tower that would hamper the movements of the Indian Army there. Leading the patrol, his task was to hunt them down.
Atanbou, the village headman, remembers the day vividly nearly 27 years later.
“When four armed militants of the NSCN (IM) came here the day before, I pleaded with them to hide out in the nearby jungles. I knew that the Indian Army patrol would follow them here. Our village was on the army’s radar since seven of our residents were…