JOIN USThe National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) faction has decided to stick to the core issue of Naga sovereignty even as the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) group signed the peace accord with the government of India in New Delhi on August 3.
The NSCN(K)’s stand has added more tension to an already uncertain situation given birth by the fact that neither of the signing parties has disclosed details about the pact. Other outfits are still unclear about how to take forward their causes.
The Khaplang outfit said in a press statement that the pact is exclusively for the NSCN(IM) and not the entire Naga community. The NSCN(K) is, in fact, regrouping under the leadership of Niki Sumi, the outfit’s military adviser who the National Investigation Agency named as the mastermind behind the June 4 ambush on an army convoy in Chandel district of Manipur, which led to the death of 18 personnel.
Sumi, too, claimed in the press release that the Naga issue is an international political conflict.
The NSCN(K), which had entered an agreement with the government of Myanmar in 2012 under its Myanmarese Naga leader SS Khaplang and walked out a ceasefire agreement with the Indian government in March this year, said: “It is only logistics in nature as is prerequisite to initiate meaningful political process and which is yet to take off.”
Meanwhile, other NSCN factions have started serious discussions over their future plan of action. Camps of such outfits in Dimapur suburbs, Kohima, Tuensang and Mon in the state have virtually turned into war rooms, sources in those factions said.
Those factions who signed ceasefire agreements with the Centre are fearing that they might be pushed by New Delhi to accept a deal dictated by NSCN(IM)’s influence. The NSCN (IM) might be officially declaring a broad outline of the pact on August 14, during the celebration of the Naga Independence Day at its council headquarters at Camp Hebron near Dimapur.
Meanwhile, Manipur Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam Gangmei on Friday told Deccan Herald that Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spell out the contents of the Naga accord.
Gangmei, however, said the Manipur government is confident that New Delhi would not commit to any kind of deal that could destabilise the region.