[1] The incident lasted for about 2 hours and left 89 shops, 48 houses, 17 vehicles and 7 two-wheelers razed to ashes, excluding those destroyed by gunfire and shelling.

The women and children were then made to crawl towards the open space of the Main Traffic Island whereas men were systematically tortured.

[citation needed] According to reports, in order to create a fear psychosis among the people, the event was systematically premeditated to prevent any mishap to Indian Army Chief Shankar Roychowdhury as he was visiting Kohima that same day to "discuss the Law and Order problem in Nagaland" with the then Chief Minister of Nagaland, S. C. Jamir.

Also earlier that day starting from around 7:00 a.m. all telephone lines in the town were mysteriously out of service which led to the apprehension that the incident was planned beforehand.

[citation needed] In January 2020, a number of Naga civil societies and various individuals showed their resentment against the construction of a War Memorial in Mokokchung by the Assam Rifles, one of the perpetrators of the infamous incident in the heart of the town.