Dimapur, September 28 (MExN): Amidst the ongoing talks with the NSCN (IM) and the Working Committee, Naga National Political groups (WC, NNPGs), the Government of India (GoI), on Monday extended the ban on the NSCN (K), declaring the latter, along with all its factions, wings and front organisations as “unlawful association.”
The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification, to this effect, on September 28. It stated that the NSCN (K) continues its aim “to create a sovereign Nagaland incorporating the Naga inhabited areas of Indo-Myanmar region by secession from the Indian Union,” while engaging in violence undermining the GoI and the state governments of Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
According to MHA notification, the group has been involved in 104 violent incidents, resulting in the killing of 7 security forces personnel, 6 civilians and the abduction of 75 civilians since September 28, 2015.
It added that the group is aligning with other unlawful associations like the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Meitei organisations of Manipur and indulging in kidnapping and extortion from businessmen, government officials and other civilians. Recruitment of cadres to continue terrorist activities, establishing camps and hideouts across the international borders, “obtaining assistance from anti-India forces in other countries to procure arms and other assistance in furtherance of its objective of achieving a separate State,” were the other charges against the NSCN (K).
It held that the central government is of the opinion that if the aforementioned unlawful activities are not curbed, “the organisation may make fresh recruitment, indulge in violent terrorist and secessionist activities, collect funds and endanger the lives of innocent citizens and security forces personnel.”
Citing sub-section (l) of section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), it said that the central government “is of the firm opinion that it is necessary to declare the NSCN-K along with all its factions, wings and front organisations as an unlawful association with immediate effect.”
The NSCN (K) has been a regular fixture in the GoI’s list of proscribed organizations, while the ban is extended every five years.
It first entered into a Ceasefire deal with the GoI in 2001, four years after the NSCN (IM)’s Ceasefire agreement and subsequent political talks with the Centre. It unilaterally backed out from the CF agreement in March 2015.
Three years later in 2018, it split into two groups, not long after its founding chairman/president, SS Khaplang passed away in June 2017. One group was led by Khaplang’s supposed protégé Yung Aung, who at present heads the splinter group, largely concentrated in the impoverished Naga Self Administered Zone in the Sagaing division of northern Myanmar.
The other, which also faced an internal power struggle recently, is currently led by Khango Konyak, who is in Nagaland. His group followed in the footsteps of other NSCN breakaways, to join the political talks with the GoI, under the umbrella of the Working Committee, NNPGs.
There are currently two splinter groups claiming or taking the NSCN (K) nomenclature founded by the late Khaplang, of which, Khango’s group is in ceasefire and officially in talks with the GoI.
The September 28 MHA notification, in all likelihood, implied the group led by Yung Aung.
.JPG)
