DIMAPUR, December 30 (NNN): The public of Zunheboto set on fire the NSCN-IM designated camp at Mukali late this morning. No cadres of the NSCN-IM were seen in the camp at the time of the incident.
There are conflicting reports just came in at the time of filing this news report by Newmai News Network this evening.
The public have claimed that they had driven out the NSCN-IM cadres before their designated camp was razed to ashes but the NSCN-IM sources said they had vacated the camp to address the situation in the best interest of the general public.
According to reports, around 10 am, the public of Zunheboto attacked the NSCN-IM designated camp and one hour later all the cadres of the NSCN-IM had fled from their base.
Minutes later the people in large number burnt down the camp of the NSCN-IM at Mukali.
However, no one was killed or hurt in today`s incident.
On the contrary, the NSCN-IM said they had vacated the camp in the best interest of the public. Sources informed NNN that the NSCN-IM is waiting for a decision from its `higher authority` regarding the next move.
Today`s attack at the NSCN-IM designated camp was the fourth one in a row by the public of Sumi (Sema) community.
On December 21, four NSCN-IM cadres had allegedly molested two women including a Christian missionary and assaulted other passengers when the victims were heading home for Christmas near Aghuito town in Zunheboto district of Nagaland.
Following the incident, the Sumi (Sema) frontal organisations had resolved on the eve of Christmas to flush out the NSCN-IM from all Sumi `inhabited areas` if the guilty NSCN-IM cadres involved in the December 21 incident were not handed over to the district administration. The deadline to fulfil the demands of the Sumi frontal organisations ended on December 25.
So far five persons have died in the public-NSCN-IM confrontation in the past four days.
It can be mentioned here that the state government of Nagaland had suggested the NSCN-IM to vacate the designated camp so as to ease the tension. Church bodies and frontal organisations including the Nagaland Baptist Churches Council (NBCC), the Naga Hoho, the Naga Mothers Association (NMA) and Naga Students Federation(NSF) have also been putting their best efforts to resolve the Zunheboto stand-off between the Sumi public and the NSCN-IM.
Vision Communications adds:
A senior Sumi leader told the Vision Communications, “we will not allow them to set up their camp in our district again. They have misbehaved with our girls and also unleashed a reign of terror in the area. We will neither pay tax nor we extend any support to this group. They are working against our Naga culture. We strongly condemn such act.”
The fugitive NSCN-IM cadres have fled to Rengma Naga dominated Btbataland area in Kohima district and taken shelter for the time being.
Normalcy has returned in the district soon after the NSCN-IM cadres fled from the area.
However, Assam Rifles jawans and additional state police personnel are still deployed there to keep a close watch of the situation.
Meanwhile, the NSCN top bosses are still waiting for a formal invitation to resume next round of peace talks. The Centre is still assessing the overall situation in Nagaland. In fact, this firing incident has exposed the simmering discontent within different Naga communities over the ongoing peace talks between the Centre and the NSCN-IM.
Many Nagas in Nagaland are of the view that NSCN-IM general secretary hails from Manipur’s Ukhrul district and being a Tangkhul Naga, he is more interested about the Nagas of Manipur.
But other factions like NNC, NSCN (Khole-Kitovi) faction and even the Myanmar based NSCN-Khaplang faction have serious differences with Muivah faction on the solution package.
Khole-Kitovi faction has already sent an official communiqué to the Centre urging for a formal invitation to start peace talks to find out a solution to the nearly seven decades old Naga political problem. The letter also questioned the “ongoing secret talks between the Centre and the NSCN-IM keeping the Naga people in the dark.”
A senior IB official told the Vision Communications that “Centre is reviewing the entire ceasefire agreement and the reports of several rounds of peace talks that were held during the tenure of interlocutor R S Pandey. All options are open since the NSCN-IM has broken the ground rules.”