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India`s Assam threatens military action against tribal separatists

IRNA

Guwahati, Oct 24, IRNA -- The provincial government in India`s north 
eastern state of Assam Friday threatened military action against a 
frontline tribal separatist group in the region for violating a 
ceasefire. 
"Militants belonging to the Isak-Muivah faction of the National 
Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) were entering Assam with arms and
ammunition and creating trouble in our state," Assam chief minister 
Tarun Gogoi told IRNA. 
The NSCN, a rebel group fighting for an independent tribal home 
land in the adjoining Nagaland state, have been operating a ceasefire 
with New Delhi since 1997 with the two sides holding peace talks - the
last round ending at Amsterdam on September 18. 
The Assam government has asked New Delhi to `caution` the Naga 
militants from violating the truce. "We shall not tolerate any such 
acts of violence and have since informed the federal government about 
the NSCN militants taking advantage of the ceasefire," the chief 
minister said. 
Assam and Nagaland shares a common boundary. In recent months, the
NSCN have been accused of violating the truce in Nagaland and in other
adjoining northeastern states as well. 
"We have got reports of the NSCN cadres moving around with weapons
outside their designated camps and involved in extortions," a senior 
Nagaland police official said. 
Paramilitary soldiers earlier this month shot dead two NSCN rebels
in an encounter in Manipur state. 
The NSCN is the oldest and the most powerful of the nearly 30-odd 
rebel armies operating in the region since India`s Independence in 
1947. 
More than 25,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in 
Nagaland since India`s independence in 1947. 
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End