The Centre on Monday extended the ceasefire agreements with three insurgent groups of Nagaland for one more year till April next year. In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said the ceasefire agreements are in operation between the government of India and National Socialist Council of Nagaland/NK (NSCN/NK), National Socialist Council of Nagaland/Reformation (NSCN/R) and National Socialist Council of Nagaland/K-Khango (NSCN/K-Khango).
“It was decided to extend the ceasefire agreements for a further period of one year with effect from April 28, 2021 to April 27, 2022 with NSCN/NK and NSCN/R and from April 18, 2021 to April 17, 2022 with NSCN/K-Khango,” the statement said. These agreements were signed on Monday.
The three outfits are breakaway factions of dominant groups NSCN-IM and NSCN-K. The NSCN-IM had entered into a ceasefire agreement with the central government in 1997 and has since then been engaged in peace negotiations.
The NSCN-IM had signed a Framework Agreement on August 3, 2015 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to find a permanent solution to the Naga issue. The Framework Agreement came after over 80 rounds of negotiations spanning 18 years, with the first breakthrough made in 1997 when the ceasefire agreement was sealed after decades of insurgency in Nagaland which started soon after India’s independence in1947.
However, the talks with the NSCN-IM is currently going nowhere as the group has been insisting for a separate Naga flag and constitution, a demand rejected by the central government. The NSCN-K had signed a ceasefire agreement with the Centre in 2001 but unilaterally abrogated it in 2015 when the then chairman of the group, S S Khaplang, was alive.
In December last year, the NSCN-K, led by dreaded militant Niki Sumi, had announced a ceasefire and said that the outfit has contacted the central government for initiating peace dialogue. Sumi was also the prime accused in the killing of 18 Indian Army soldiers in Manipur in 2015 and the National Investigation Agency had announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.
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