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North East: Naga factional clashes : NSCN-IM blames Delhi, warns of showdown

	October 29, 2007

The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (IM) has blamed the Centre for the recent fratricidal killings in the state and has warned of a showdown in the near future if the Centre fails to control the activists of the rival Khaplang faction.



An NSCN (IM) spokesman said in Kohima on Oct. 27 that the crux of the issue that had put “Nagalim’s peace at stake” was the failure of the Indian security forces to restrain the NSCN (K) from moving around with criminal intentions and agendas.



“The NSCN’s blunt message to the government is to stop the Khaplang group from any anti-peace activities and anti-NSCN activities.”



The present scenario, according to a statement issued by the outfit, gives clear indications that New Delhi has failed again to show its sincerity and commitment by feigning ignorance that appears to be more pretentious than anything else.



The outfit has been accusing the Centre of aiding and abet¬ting the Khaplang faction of the NSCN to create divisions in Naga society. The NSCN (K) is opposed to integration of contigu¬ous Naga-inhabited areas, though its chairman, S.S. Khaplang, is originally from Myanmar.



The NSCN (I-M) has been asking the Centre to control the Khaplang faction’s activists in Nagaland so as to facilitate a peaceful and congenial atmosphere for the ongoing Naga peace process with the Centre.





Forces hunt for militants



Meanwhile, security forces in the troubled region have launched a massive operation in the forests in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh following an ambush by the NSCN (IM) cadres on an Assam Rifles convoy on Oct. 25.



The attack had taken place around 7 in the evening when a three-vehicle convoy, carrying personnel from the 23 Assam Ri¬fles, was ambushed three kilometres off Panchau near Khonsa in Tirap district.



According to Tirap Superintendent of Police C.K. Mein, the first vehicle, a truck, was blown up in a powerful improvised explosive device, after which the militants fired from both sides of the road.



Four persons including three Assam Rifles personnel and a civilian, were killed in the incident.



The attack comes at a time when the outfit has entered into a ceasefire with the government to find a peaceful solution to the Naga problem.



“This is an unfortunate and shocking act of violence by the NSCN (I-M). We are still to make out why the outfit launched the attack,” a senior Assam Rifles official said. He, however, de¬clined to give details.



Sources said the Naga militant outfit is believed to have carried out the ambush in retaliation for Operation Orchid, launched by the 23 Assam Rifles in the district to flush out NSCN (I-M) militants.



The twin districts of Tirap and Changlang used to be a stronghold of the Khaplang faction of the NSCN.



But since 2000, the Isak-Muivah faction has taken control of the districts, driving out most activists of its rival faction. The NSCN (I-M) claims the twin districts to be a part of Greater Nagalim.



Reports from the state capital, Kohima, indicate that Naga¬land is slipping back into the routine of fratricidal feuds with the warring NSCN factions mounting tit-for-tat attacks on one another. The groups lost three men each in the fighting, which broke out barely two days after the one headed by S.S. Khaplang claimed to have extracted an assurance from New Delhi that all “unauthorised camps” of the Isak-Muivah faction would be de¬stroyed.



Police sources said a group of NSCN (I-M) members attacked a hideout of the Khaplang faction near Medziphema town, 60km from Kohima, and killed two of the inmates. A little later, NSCN(K) members retaliated by gunning down two from the rival camp at New Market in Dimapur.



Two more rebels - one from either faction - died in another shootout at Nagarjan in Dimapur last week.