9 massacred near Pachaspura; police recover decomposed bodies

In what is believed to be the worst massacre ever in recent memory in Dimapur, police Friday night recovered nine highly decomposed bodies from a ditch in Pachas-pura area about a hundred feet by the side of the new road to Peren currently under construction.
The new road veers left before Khopanalla bridge (which goes to Shukhovi village) and some five to six kilometres after crossing the new DC Office Complex.
Police discovered the bodies lying in a pile, atop each other. The victims had been blindfolded, hands tied behind and shot from close range on the heads. The bodies were covered under a blue polythene sheet over which, some boulders were placed.
All of the victims were males and believed to be between the ages of eighteen and above.
What has caught both the administration and police totally by surprise was that there had been no report of any missing person(s) during the past week. It was also reported that even the people in the area had not reported any unusual activity nor heard any gunshots.
The first inkling came when Police were informed late Friday by some of the labourers working on the road construction site of seeing some human feet protruding out from a ditch inside a jungle.
As per the preliminary reports, police suspect that all nine victims may have been executed on the spot. The condition of the bodies also indicated that the victims may have died at least around ten days ago.
The first police party that had gone to the site but were overcome with the foul smell which caused some of them to retch. It was only in the late evening that a second team rushed to the spot that included DC Dimapur Hushili Sema and SP Dimapur V.Z. Angami, Addl. SP Watichujang, SDO (C) and other police officials.
The stench coming from the spot where the highly decomposed bodies were piled up was so nauseating that several policemen who were shifting the bodies started retching. Even the sight of the bodies as ghastly and police had to hastily wrap polythene covers over them.
After wrapping the bodies, police then loaded them into trucks to be taken to the Dimapur District Civil Hospital morgue as part of forensic investigation.
News of the discovery of the bodies spread like wildfire and fuelled speculations about the possible identities and the circumstances. However, police have refused to speculate till proper post-mortem and investigation was conducted.

~NP