Nagaland, inhabited by the Nagas, is located at the tri-junction border of India on the West and South, north and Myanmar on the East.

Not desiring to join the Indian Union, the Naga National Council, under the leadership of Zapu Phizo, declared Nagaland an independent state.

[9] Faced with isolation and discrimination from other British-Indian troops, who bore little resemblance to them, the Nagas formed a bond of unity and camaraderie among themselves.

The NNC leaders and the Governor of Assam, Sir Akbar Hydari, signed a nine-point agreement in 1947 which granted Nagas rights over their lands and legislative and executive powers.

However, one clause stipulates:[12] The Governor of Assam as the agent of the Government of India will have a special responsibility for a period of ten years to ensure that due observance of this agreement to be extended for a further period, or a new agreement regarding the future of the Naga people to be arrived at.The interpretation of this clause has been contested between the Nagas and the Indian Government.

The more radical sectors of the NNC created the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN), which also included an underground Naga Army.

[17] The killings led to wide-ranging protests to hold the soldiers accountable and to ask for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

The Act, commonly known as AFSPA, was enacted in the state in 1958 by the central government of India, which authorises soldiers of the armed forces to shoot any suspected individual without formal orders from any superior civilian authority.