April 17, 2007
Nagaland on Alert
After Six Killed in NSCN Attacks
Kohima
Hundreds of police and paramilitary troopers were deployed in
Nagaland Tuesday after six people were killed in clashes between
rival tribal separatist groups, both of whom operate ceasefires with
New Delhi.
"Security forces have now been sent to the area to bring the
situation under control. We are still not out of the woods," said
L.L. Doungel, deputy inspector general of Nagaland Police.
He said heavily armed militants of the Isak Muivah faction of the
National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) clashed in two
separate places with cadres of the rival group headed by S.S.
Khaplang.
"In one incident, NSCN-IM militants attacked and killed three
members of the rival Khaplang group. In retaliatory strikes, cadres
of the NSCN-Khaplang faction killed three of their rival members,"
Doungel said.
The official said a group of armed NSCN-K rebels late Monday
attacked and killed three NSCN-IM cadres near Dimapur, Nagaland's
commercial hub. On Sunday, NSCN-IM rebels raided a village near
Zunheboto town, about 180 km north of state capital Kohima, killing
three rival cadres.
"Armed NSCN-IM rebels shot dead three members of the rival faction
and then attacked the residence of Kitovi Zhimomi, the general
secretary of the Khaplang faction," another senior police official
said. At least half-a-dozen rebel cadres of the Khaplang faction
were injured in the attack.
"They (NSCN-IM) also shot at the legs of a civilian and set ablaze
five houses belonging to local villagers in an incident near Dimapur,"
Kughalo Mulatonu, a senior NSCN-Khaplang leader, told IANS.
Both the NSCN factions are operating a ceasefire with New Delhi -
the NSCN-IM is holding peace talks after the group entered into a
truce in 1997. The NSCN-Khaplang is yet to begin formal talks with
New Delhi although the group signed a ceasefire pact with the
central government in 2001.
"The attacks are nothing but a gross violation of the ceasefire
ground rules and vindicates our stand that the Nagaland government
is in hand in glove with the NSCN-IM," Mulatonu said.
The two warring factions are engaged in a bitter fratricidal war for
territorial supremacy with at least 200 cadres killed during the
past five years.
"The frequent clashes do not bode well for the future of ongoing
peace process. People in general want peace and an end to all forms
of bloodshed and killings," said N. Krome, president of the Naga
Hoho, the apex tribal council in Nagaland.
The violent insurgency in Nagaland has claimed around 25,000 lives
since the country's independence in 1947.
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