[ Bengia Ajum ]
ITANAGAR, 5 Jul: The NSCN (IM) last month invited civil society bodies of Tirap, Changlang and Longding (TCL) districts to the outfit’s headquarters in Nagaland for a meeting.
Even though most of the civil society bodies skipped the meeting after being pressured by the state government and security officials not to attend it, around five persons from the TCL region, including a former minister and a current member of the Arunachal Naga Students’ Federation, attended the meeting.
The meeting was held at Camp Hebron, the headquarters of the NSCN (IM) near Dimapur in Nagaland.
The state government had through the eastern range IGP issued a clear message to the civil society bodies to avoid the meeting.
“We had clear instructions from the state government and security forces not to attend the meeting; therefore we did not attend,” said N Changmi, the chairman of the Tirap, Changlang and Longding Intellectual Forum, an influential body of the TCL region.
As per sources, the NSCN (IM) leaders conducted the meeting in order to build up pressure on the government of India to conclude the Indo-Naga peace talks at the earliest.
“The NSCN (IM) leadership urged the Arunachal delegation to put pressure on their state government to bring an early solution to the Naga peace talks,” said an official privy to the meeting.
NSCN (IM) general secretary Th Muivah, along with senior officials of the outfit, including military leadership, was present at the meeting.
The peace talks between the NSCN (IM) and the government of India are reportedly entering a critical phase. In April this year, NSCN (IM) leaders, led by Muivah, met the Centre’s interlocutor for the Naga peace talks, AK Mishra, at Camp Hebron.
