Stern action will be taken against militants: Nagaland governor

Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya on Monday, condemning the killing of eight security personnel in the state, said the government would initiate the strictest action against the militants responsible.

"Violence has no place in a democracy and the government would initiate the strictest action against the militants within the provisions of the law," he said in a statement.

Acharya, who is also the governor of Assam and Tripura, said that the innocent soldiers were killed in an ambush when they had gone to fetch drinking water, not in a combat.

Defence spokesman Sunit Newton said that the incident occurred at Mon district of Nagaland when militants gunned down seven Assam Rifles troopers and one Territorial Army personnel. Another nine personnel were also injured in the attack.

Assam Rifles officials suspect the Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) to be behind the attack.

The militant outfit had recently unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire agreement with the union government. The outfit had last month also targeted security forces in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

Another separatist outfit National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), which has been fighting for "Greater Nagaland" for over six decades, entered into a ceasefire agreement with the central government since August 1997.

The proposed demand of "Greater Nagaland", slicing off parts of three neighbouring states to unite 1.2 million Nagas, has been opposed by Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

The union government and the NSCN-IM held more than 50 rounds of peace talks to end one of south Asia's longest-running insurgencies in which 25,000 people have died since 1947.