A Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 15
The Assam Rifles early Sunday morning gunned down at least four cadres hailed from one of the factions of NSCN in a military operation conducted at Liangkonger village near Shamator town in Tuensang district. However, it was not clear to which faction the deceased belonged.
Highly placed sources suggested that around six or seven more cadres of the NSCN were injured in the operation. Official sources from Tuensang said that the incident occurred at around 4 am on Sunday. Further information was scant, despite continuous efforts, due to poor telecom connectivity in the area, police said.
Meanwhile, IGAR(N) in a press release claimed that the slain cadres hailed from GPRN/NSCN (Khole-Kitovi group). The press note said on receiving information of movement of NSCN (K) cadres with weapons in Laikunger village area, 2 km west of Shamatore in Tuensang district, a patrol of Assam Rifles reached the area in the early hours today and cordoned off the village.
As the patrol approached the community hall inside the village, they were fired upon with automatic assault rifles from inside. The gun-battle between Assam Rifles and underground cadres continued for almost two and half hours.
According to PRO -IGAR (N) Kohima, at no stage during the firing did the underground cadres attempt to reveal their identity or surrender to the Assam Rifles. “During the entire encounter, Assam Rifles maintained utmost restraint and used minimum force to ensure there were no civilian casualties or collateral damage.”
“After the firing stopped a detailed search of the area was carried out which resulted in the recovery of bodies of four underground cadres along with four assault rifles which included one AK-47 assault rifle, one M-16 assault rifle and two .303 assault rifles. In addition the underground cadres were in possession of 101 live bullets of AK-47 rifle, 230 live bullets of M-16 rifle and 29 live bullets of .303 rifle. Over and above the live bullets the area was scattered with 83 fired cases of AK-47/ M-16/ .303 bullets. The underground cadres were armed to the teeth and fully prepared for intensive operations. Later in the day, it came to light that these cadres belonged to the NSCN (Khole-Kitovi) faction.”
There had been many inputs from intelligence agencies in the past week regarding movement of NSCN (K) cadres from Myanmar across the Indo-Myanmar border in the districts of Mon, Tuensang, Zunheboto, Kiphire and Phek, PRO release said.
“The NSCN(K) cadres had entered Nagaland to carry out subversive actions against the Security Forces as well as to collect extortion money from various agencies like TTK Services (Dimapur), Airtel Telecom (Dimapur, Kohima, Zunheboto etc), contractors, businessmen, annual tax from State Teachers Association (Zunheboto), annual house tax from villages etc. There were also reports of movement of cadres of NSCN (IM), NSCN (KK) and NSCN(R) in these areas for collection of similar taxes.”
PRO -IGAR(N) Kohima said, “The security forces had anticipated difficulties in identification of the underground cadres from various factions while operating at night in the jungles. Office of Chairman Cease Fire Monitoring Group (CFMG)/ Cease Fire Supervisory Board (CFSB) had been approached to inform all the underground factions having Cease Fire with GoI not to venture out with weapons, specifically in the districts of Tuensang, Kiphire and Phek to prevent any accidental encounter with Security Forces. The factions had been conveyed through the office of Chairman CFMG/ CFSB that if any movement has to take place with weapons then the same should be informed to the nearest Assam Rifles post commander. Office of Chairman CFMG / CFSB had confirmed to the office of Inspector General Assam Rifles (North) that necessary instructions had been conveyed to the various underground factions. Movement of underground cadres with weapons outside their Designated Camps is a serious violation of the Cease Fire Ground Rules which is known to every underground faction.”
“Despite being warned about likely accidental engagements, a heavily armed group of NSCN (KK) cadres was operating in the area of Shamatore without intimating the Security Forces, and specifically without informing the nearest Assam Rifles post at Shamatore. The movement of this group was in clear violation of the Cease Fire Ground Rules as well as non-adherence of cautionary message conveyed by the Assam Rifles and the office of Chairman CFMG/ CFSB.”
“The issue of violation of Cease Fire Ground Rules has been conveyed to all factions during regular CFMG/ CFSB meetings as well as through the office of Chairman CFMG/ CFSB. Despite this, Security Forces have regularly been apprehending cadres of all factions indulging in extortion and movement with unauthorised weapons. The latest violation is by NSCN(R) wherein cadres of the faction were caught at Tizit in the afternoon of 15 Nov 2015, trying to smuggle 19 new recruits from Changlang District (Arunachal Pradesh) to their camp at New Phuktong (Mon District). Recruitment of new cadres is also a violation of Cease Fire Ground Rules. “
PRO said, the accidental encounter between Assam Rifles patrol and NSCN (KK) has been unfortunate and a result of violation of Cease Fire Ground Rules and not adhering to the cautionary message conveyed by the office of Chairman CFMG/ CFSB.
“In order to avoid any such accidental confrontations in the future, Assam Rifles makes a sincere appeal to all the underground factions to adhere to the Cease Fire Ground Rules, and any movement with weapons outside the Designated Camps must be intimated to HQ IGAR (North) or the nearest Sector HQ/Assam Rifles Unit.”
