Centre extends ceasefire with 3 Naga rebel groups

Guwahati, April 20: The Centre today the extended ceasefire agreement with three Naga rebel groups for a further period of one year. The groups include 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).

All these groups are breakaway factions of NSCN-IM and NSCN-K and signed the ceasefire agreements with the government over the years.
“It was decided to extend the ceasefire agreements for a further period of one year with effect from April 28, 2022 to April 27, 2023 with NSCN-NK and NSCN-R, and from April 18, 2022 to April 17, 2023 with NSCN-K-Khango,” a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs said.

The development comes even as NSCN-IM leaders, led by General Secretary Th Muivah, Tuesday met with Centre’s interlocutor for Naga peace talks, AK Mishra, at the outfit’s headquarters, Camp Hebron near Dimapur.

Former special director of the Intelligence Bureau, Misra, who replaced RN Ravi as the Centre’s representative last year, reached Nagaland on Monday to discuss the vexed Naga political issue.

Misra is expected to meet the state government’s core committee, as well as the Naga National Political Groups (NNPG) during his stay. This was the first time that talks on the Naga issue were held inside the NSCN-IM headquarters. 

The meeting was held a week after Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton and former Chief Minister T R Zeliang met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi to discuss the status of peace talks, which seems to have hit a rumble since 2019.