India may ask Myanmar to revoke its ceasefire pact with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) when Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi visits Naypyidaw next month. The NSCN-K was banned by India in 2015 for various attacks against its security forces.
During earlier bilateral meetings, India had handed over a list of over 20 insurgent camps operating in Myanmar, a few kilometres from the Indian border. The Myanmar Army has denied the existence of any insurgent camps on its territory.
NSCN-K patriarch S.S. Khaplang, who passed away on June 6, had been on India’s most-wanted list. After his death, Khango Konyak, who was serving as the vice-chairman of the NSCN-K, was elected the new chief of the banned outfit, which operates from camps in Myanmar.
Ceasefire agreement
“The NSCN-K has a ceasefire agreement with Myanmar. We would request the neighbouring country to revoke the agreement and hand over its leaders to India. Not only NSCN-K, other insurgent groups are also operating their camps from Myanmar,” a senior government official said.
Mr. Mehrishi will visit Myanmar on July 6 for the national-level meeting.
“The insurgent groups have formed a network on both sides of the border, to smuggle arms and form the backbone of anti-India activities. We need an assurance that the Myanmar government would destroy these camps. We will provide them with the precise location,” said the official.
The official also said that leaders of various insurgent groups other than NSCN-K were operating from the bordering areas and were instrumental in ‘anti-India’ activities.
“S.S. Khaplang was revered by a large section of Nagas in both Myanmar and India. His demise will definitely have an impact on the organisation (NSCN-K). But we have to understand that violence is bad for everyone and it won’t lead us to a fruitful future,” said Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home.
In an interview to The Hindu on Sunday, Nagaland Home Minister Yanthungo Patton said that he would request the Centre to sign a ceasefire agreement with the NSCN-K and that they had contacted Mr. Khaplang in the “last part of 2015” to convince him to come for talks.
The NSCN-K unilaterally abrogated ceasefire in March 2015, leading to multiple violent incidents, including the attack on an Army convoy on June 4 in Manipur’s Chandel district where 18 Army men were killed. In retaliation, the Army conducted an operation along the Myanmar border and destroyed a large number of camps.
Panel constituted
On June 12, at a meeting in Aizawl, Home Minister Rajnath Singh constituted a committee to examine various methods to curb the misuse of free movement along the Myanmar border, and said that “it was being misused by militants and trans-border criminals who occasionally entered India, committed crimes and escaped to their relatively safer hideouts.”
India and Myanmar share an unfenced border of 1,643 km adjoining Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Nagaland (215 km), Manipur (398 km) and Mizoram (510 km) and permit a ‘free movement’ regime up to 16 km across the border.
