The NSCN-IM on Sunday accused the Assam Rifles of violating the ceasefire ground rules, alleging that personnel of the 23 Assam Rifles had apprehended a staff of the NSCN-IM Zeliang region on November 16 ‘without any reason’.
A statement issued to the media, the NSCN-IM said that Ringnichang Khapur was apprehended at around 5:30 pm on Sunday at Riangpang village of Nungba sub-division in Nagaland.
“The Assam Rifles team which violated the cease fire ground rules was, however, confronted by the womenfolk and public of Riangpang village and Nungba areas who blocked the National Highway 39 to demand the release of the arrested Khapur,” the statement by NSCN-IM said.
It further claimed that a woman was ‘seriously injured as her head was pierced with a gun barrel of the Assam Rifles personnel and had to be hospitalized at Nungba, while many others were injured in their bid to rescue the Khapur’.
The NSCN-IM through the statement also alleged that the apprehended person was ‘tortured inside the vehicle of the Assam Rifles personnel even while the womenfolk tried to negotiate his release from the hands of the Assam Rifles personnel’.
Condemning the incident, the NSCN-IM stated that ‘such a provocation and harassment by the Indian security forces happened again at a time when the Indo-Naga peace talk is in progress’.
The outfit through the statement also lauded the ‘Naga womenfolk and public from Riangpang village and Nungba areas for their courage, sacrifice and timely intervention which led to the rescue of the apprehended person on time’.