The Indian armed forces are using a Kuki extremist outfit and a pro-democracy armed group in civil war-torn Myanmar to wage a war against the Naga Army along the India-Myanmar border, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) said on Thursday.
It said the National Investigation Agency, by alleging that the NSCN has been helping radical Meitei groups to fuel the year-old ethnic conflict between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo groups in Manipur, is “spitting venom”.
The NSCN said the Assam Rifles (AR) and the India Army’s para regiment have been using the Kuki National Army (Burma), or KNA(B), and the People’s Defence Force (PDF) for a proxy war to kill its members. This is a deliberate attempt to drag the NSCN into a conflict it has steered clear of while pursuing a political settlement to the ‘Naga political issue’ with the Government of India, the outfit said.
The KNA(B) has a Manipur-based wing called the KNA. The PDF is the armed wing of the exiled National Unity Government that has been fighting the Tatmadaw or Myanmar military, which staged a coup on February 1, 2021.
“It is a matter of regret that the AR and the para regiment are openly standing out to collude with Kuki militant groups against NSCN, creating a war-like scenario in the border areas of India and Myanmar. No such war-mongering situation was witnessed in recent history despite the area (being) prone to infiltration by different militant groups,” the NSCN said.
The KNA and KNA(B) have denied any links with the AR and the paratroopers, but the NSCN said that the Kuki group “is being given unrestrained access” to the crossing points for easy movement across the India-Myanmar border.
The Assam Rifles is in charge of guarding the 1,643 km India-Myanmar border.
‘FMR scrapping meaningless’
The Naga extremist group said the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR), which allowed residents along the India-Myanmar border to travel up to 16km within each other’s territory without papers, by the Ministry of Home Affairs has been rendered meaningless by the Indian armed forces partisan attitude to the Kuki groups.
The FMR was scrapped to control the inward movement of “illegal immigrants” and “undesirable elements” but the Indian armed forces see the Kuki extremists as “favourable elements” to “wreck the presence of the Naga Army in Myanmar”, the NSCN said.
“The (border) villagers have seen truckloads of Kuki militants being dropped at the border by the AR. There is a strong nexus between the Indian security forces, KNA(B) and PDF...” it said.
The NSCN claimed the Indian armed forces supplied combat materials to the KNA(B) and the PDF in Myanmar’s Chin Province bordering Mizoram and Manipur. The Indian armed forces also supplied galvanised iron pipes for a bomb-making factory of the KNA(B) at Phaiyang, it added.
Phaiyang is a village in Myanmar close to the border with India facing Namlee village in Manipur’s Kamjong district.
Reactions sought from the Indian Army and the Assam Rifles are awaited.
