No plans to restart ceasefire with NSCN-K: Home ministry

The Indian government has no plans to re-enter into a ceasefire agreement with Naga insurgent group NSCN-K, a home ministry official said on Monday.

"There is no official communication on this (re-entering into ceasefire with NSCN-K) from the government of India, and at this moment there are no initiatives from our side," Satyendra Garg, home ministry joint secretary in-charge of northeast affairs, told journalists.

Garg, who reviewed the overall law and order situation in Meghalaya with state Home Minister Roshan Warjri, however, said the counter-insurgency operations against the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang will continue.

"We will continue with our operations against the NSCN-K and I should say that the overall security situation in Nagaland is okay," he said.

Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang had earlier appealed to the Indian government to restart a ceasefire agreement with the NSCN-K to allow peace to prevail in the state.

S.S. Khaplang, a Myanmarese Hemi Naga chieftain who heads the NSCN-K faction, abrogated the ceasefire with the Indian government on March 27, 2015, just a month before the truce was up for renewal. The group had signed a truce in 2001.

After abrogating the ceasefire, Khaplang's rebels went on a killing spree, attacking Indian soldiers in Nagaland and Manipur. The outfit even mounted the deadly ambush on a convoy of the 6 Dogra Regiment in Manipur's Chandel district on June 4, 2015, killing 18 army personnel.

--IANS

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