From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Friday’s killing of a member of Naga rebel group NSCN-K in Kohima has once again proved that ‘peace’ in Nagaland is passing through a testing time. The cadres of the rebel groups in truce with government of India continue to move around freely brandishing weapons under the nose of state police and security forces in sharp violation of ceasefire ground rules much to the dismay and panic of the common people in the hill state.
The government of India had long back entered into truce with the NSCN –IM led by Th Muivah and Isak Swu and the NSCN-K led by S S Khaplang, a Burmese origin Naga based in Myanmar, in the year 1997 and 2001 respectively. The Government has been engaging the NSCN-IM in peace talks for over a decade now and both the sides claim to have made significant progress in it.
However, bitter rivalry between NSCN factions has been a bane for Naga society that has been yearning for lasting peace after decades of violence and bloodshed. Though civil society groups and Church-backed Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) have tried best to make peace between the NSCN-IM and NSCN-K, the recent split in the NSCN-K into NSCN-Khaplang and NSCN (Khole-Kitovi) again revived the factional rivalry that is threatening the uneasy peace in the state.
The figures related to violent incidents in Nagaland during the last couple of years reflected the uneasy situation prevailing in the state despite the truce being in forces between security forces and government. There were 61 incidents violence in 2011 as compared to 64 in 2010. Eight militants were killed in 2011 compared to five in 2010. Seven civilians were killed in 2011 while there was no such killing in 2010. There were 59 incidents of abduction in 2011 compared to 42 in 2010.