The wooden engraving depicting Cheno’s captivity by the India Army.
Ashikho Pfuzhe
Mon | March 13
Four decades after coming overground, this veteran Konyak warrior from remote Chentwetnyu village in Mon district bordering Myanmar still hopes to rest his weary limbs in a ‘Free Nagaland.’
Cheno Khuzuthrupa, now in his nineties, joined the Naga National Council (NNC) in 1952, the same year NNC leader, AZ Phizo, came to Konyak country to propagate a Nagaland free from external occupation.
In 1952, Phizo reportedly passed through Chenwetnyu village enroute to Wakching where he addressed a public meeting and called upon the Konyak people to join the Naga freedom movement.
“At Chenwetnyu, Phizo urged us to join the NNC for self-determination”, Cheno recalled, sitting in his hearth with a cup of black tea. Inspired by the concept of a “free Naga country”, Cheno joined the NNC and served in various capacities including as ‘Raja Peyu’ before coming overground in 1976.
In March 1960, he was caught by Indian Army and imprisoned for a month in Mon. “We were tortured by the India Army and as prisoner, I was also part of the labour force which constructed the DC Bungalow, football ground and helipad in Mon town”, he said.
On a huge block of wood near the entrance to his ancient house is sculpted the images of Cheno in manacles flanked by two Indian soldiers – a grim reminder of the troubled and tortured past.
Fourteen years after Phizo set foot in Chenwetnyu, the village played host to one of the most eventful moments in the history of Naga struggle: in 1966, a band of 100-odd NNC soldiers under the command of then Naga Army Brig Thinoselie Keyho, camped in Chenwetnyu village for four months (May-September) before embarking on the long trek to China on foot.
Cheno distinctly remembers the presence of NSCN (I-M) leaders Th. Muivah (then Foreign secretary) and Isak Chishi Swu in Keyho’s band.
This was the first batch of Naga Army to undergo arms training in China.
The aged warrior is not aware of the latest peace agreement signed between the NSCN (I-M) and Government of India and he is also least concerned about the different Naga underground factions that have come up since then. And nothing else matters for this die-hard NNC warrior.
“I fought under the banner of NNC and whatever I have gone through, it was for a righteous cause and I still have faith that I’ll die in a ‘Free Nagaland’”, Cheno said.
