On 26 August an Indian Air Force Dakota DC-3 registered HJ233 trying to drop relief materials and ammunitions to the besieged post was shot down by the Naga Army and its crew members led by Capt.
Outraged by the act, the Government of India unleashed a heavy army operation in the Pochury Naga area to search and rescue the captured airmen.
[3] Despite under intense provocation, none of the captured Indian Air Force crew members were ill-treated, tortured or harmed under the custody of the Naga Home Guards and the Federal Government of Nagaland.
Then the Indian Army dragged all the men inside the house of the village chief where nine of them were butchered and beheaded to death.
The Indian soldiers later burnt the dead bodies inside the house along with the entire village and the granaries to ashes.
[1] Due to fear of further atrocities by the Indian Army, the survivors of the village wandered into deep jungle without food and shelter.