Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 17
Normal activities in Dimapur and the state capital Kohima as well as in the Naga areas of Manipur state were affected by the bandh called by the NSCN/GPRN in “protest” against New Delhi refusing entry to NSCN leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Th. Muivah into Zunheboto on Saturday.
Speaking with this reporter, a Dimapur-based businessman said that there was no information from any quarter of an impending business closure on Tuesday, with even the Dimapur Chamber of Commerce and Industry reportedly caught unawares. The businessman said that whatever reports received were at best unconfirmed and conflicting. Nevertheless, the business community chose not to open shop so as to avoid any unwanted confrontation, the businessman said.
It was learned on Tuesday evening that the decision to go ahead with the business closure was arrived at on Monday at a meeting held in Dimapur. The move was to express the NSCN/GPRN’s resentment against the Government of India’s recent imposition on its collective leadership, which prevented them from visiting Zunheboto. “CAO” of the group’s “UT-1” (the organization’s geographical terminology for Dimapur), Chuba Pongen told this reporter over phone said that the ‘bandh’ was called to demonstrate the resentment of the “Naga people as a whole.”
Chief Secretary to the government of Nagaland, Lalthara, chose to tread it safe when queried on the Nagaland’s government’s stand or rather comment on today’s ‘bandh’. “We neither support nor oppose”, said the chief secretary over phone, while adding “it is up to the people to heed or not to heed”. He also added that the government was ‘yet to confirm’ whether the ‘bandh’ was called by the group in concern.
Unlike in the past when the Nagaland government had openly opposed any calls for business ‘bandh’, this time the government was silent on the matter. Without justifying, the chief secretary said that the government can and would react only when ‘bandh’ enforcers openly resort to use of force to achieve their goal. In Tuesday’s case, however, he asserted, there were no reports of volunteers coming out in the open and coercing businesses to shut down.
The ‘bandh’ lasted from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm and passed off without any major incidents. However, for the public there were a lot of inconveniences caused to them in general, as the bandh came as a surprise to many. In Dimapur, vehicles made a beeline for Lahorijan and Khatkhati near the Assam border for fuel as well as for groceries and essential commodities.
In Mokokchung the situation was more or less the same. There, it was learned that some businesses, unaware of the ‘bandh’, did open in the morning but had to close down later.
Also, Newmai News Network reports that the Naga areas in Manipur were affected by the 12 hour bandh called by the NSCN/GPRN. Convener of the NSCN/GPRN Steering Committee VS Atem told the agency that the bandh ended at 6 pm on Tuesday which began this morning in what he called “Nagalim”, meaning, in all the 'Naga areas'.
In Senapati district headquarters, the shops were seen closed since morning. Reports received from the district headquarters said that except a few vegetable vendors more or less all the shops were shut. Similar reports were also received from the district headquarters of Ukhrul, Tamenglong and Chandel.
With inputs from Newmai News Network
