No plans yet to re-enter ceasefire with NSCN-K: Official

The Indian government has no plans to re-enter into a ceasefire agreement with the Myanmar-based National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), an official said on Friday.

"We have no plans (to re-sign the ceasefire agreement). Let's give sometime for things to settle down... it is too early to comment on it," Ceasefire Monitoring Group Chairman D.K.Pathak told journalists at the Assam Rifles headquarters here.

Pathak's statement is significant following the recent appointment of Khango Konyak as the Chairman of the NSCN-K after the outfit's chief S.S. Khaplang died on June 9 in Taka in Myanmar's Sagaing Division.

Nagaland Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu had revealed that Khaplang had conveyed his willingness to have dialogue with the Indian government for an early solution to the Naga issue.

He said that the Nagaland government has been sending delegations to meet the NSCN-K leadership in Myanmar in recent times to convince the group to re-enter into the peace process with the Indian government.

NSCN-K faction, abrogated the ceasefire, signed in 2001, with the Indian government on March 27, 2015, just a month before the truce was up for renewal.

Subsequently, 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, in which 18 soldiers were killed.

--IANS

rrk/vd