DIMAPUR: Amidst the Centre’s representative for Naga talks AK Mishra’s visit to Nagaland, the working committee of the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) said “only desperate lunatics and bloodthirsty bandits would continue to talk of bloodshed”.
The committee said this while reacting to the April 16 statement of the NSCN-IM which purportedly implied that the solution to the Naga problem with the NNPGs would invite another era of bloodshed in Nagaland.
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Both the NSCN-IM and the NNPGs are holding separate parleys with the government of India to resolve the Naga issue.
In a statement, the NNPGs said it is “unforgivable” that such a threat was issued to the tribes of Nagaland who have seen enough innocent spilled in the name of sovereignty.
The statement sought to remind that “hundreds of innocent fathers and sons whisked away at gunpoint, blindfolded still untraced”.
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It asserted that there will be no era of bloodshed as the Naga have partnered with the working committee of the NNPGs in the talks are ready to usher in an honourable and acceptable solution.
On the Framework Agreement signed with the NSCN (IM) on August 3, 2015, the NNPGs reiterated that from 1997, when the NSCN (IM) signed the ceasefire agreement with the government of India, to August 3, 2015 and to October 31, 2019, when the talks were said to have concluded, the Nagas of Nagaland were misled and prevented from access to what was negotiated with the government of India.
Meanwhile, Mishra, who is on a week-long visit to Nagaland from April 18, held an informal meeting with the NSCN (I-M)’s chief negotiator and general secretary Th Muivah at the headquarters of the outfit at Camp Hebron on Tuesday.
This was for the first time that the government of India’s representative for Naga talks held a meeting with the NSCN (IM) at its headquarters.
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Mishra also held a closed-door meeting with the president of the Niki Sumi faction of the NSCN (Khaplang) Niki Sumi and other leaders of the group at Chumukedima police complex later in the evening on Tuesday.
He also met chief minister Neiphiu Rio at the police complex.
Mishra is scheduled to meet the working committee of the NNPGs on April 21 and the NSCN-IM on April 22 and 23.
He is also likely to meet the Core Committee on Naga Political Issue over the weekend.