Nagaland's Mon district administration has imposed prohibitory order under Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), 1973 in the district with immediate effect prohibiting the gathering of five or more persons and all vehicular movement of non-essential nature, including passenger vehicles.

In the order, Mon district magistrate Thavaseelan K stated that due to the prevailing law and order situation in the district, there are sufficient grounds for taking precautionary measures for prevention of the occurrence of any untoward incidents in the interest of maintaining peace and tranquility in the district.

The order was issued following the ambush carried out "mistakenly" by the security forces on civilians at Oting village in Mon district late Saturday. The incident left 13 civilians and one security personnel killed.

The death toll surged to 17 as two more locals died as enraged protesters reportedly attacked the Assam Rifles camp in Mon district after the ambush. In retaliation, the Assam Rifles reportedly resorted to indiscriminate firing, killing two locals and leaving many others injured, sources said.

Earlier in the day, the Nagaland government banned mobile internet, data services, and bulk SMS of all telecom service providers in the entire area of Mon district with immediate effect.

"Whereas, there is apprehension of grave law and order problems in Mon District, Nagaland owing to the prevailing situation created by firing incidents today, leading to the death of several persons in Tiru Oting village area under Tizit and Naginimora sub-divisions," the state Home Department stated in a notification.

"Whereas Short Message Service (SMS), Whatsapp, Facebook, and other social media platforms could be used for spreading rumours, fake news, and for circulating inflammatory texts, pictures, videos etc. which may inflame passions and thus exacerbate the law and order situation. To prevent the misuse of the above-mentioned media from whipping up tension in the district, and further in order to prevent a breach of the public peace and tranquillity, and for maintaining law and order, mobile internet, data service and bulk SMS of all the service providers in the entire area of Mon District will be prohibited with immediate effect till further orders," the notification issued by Nagaland Home commissioner Abhijit Sinha stated.