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Assam Rifles personnel seen at Sihai village in Ukhrul district.[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, May 1: Normalcy has finally returned to Sihai village of Ukhrul district in Manipur after the Assam Rifles (AR) personnel and NSCN (IM) cadres withdrew from the village on Wednesday, May 1.
This was confirmed by Hopingson A Shimray, president of the Tangkhul community’s apex body Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL).
“The situation has been diffused and both parties have vacated the place,” Shimray told Eastern Mirror over the phone on Wednesday. He informed that the AR went back to the camp after inspecting the area to ensure that NSCN (IM) cadres have left the contentious camp.
It came a day after more than 2500 members of the Tangkhul community marched to Sihai in an attempt to defuse the confrontation. The two warring parties had agreed to vacate the place after hours of negotiation with the Tangkhul civil organisations on Tuesday.
The stand-off between the two armed groups that lasted for five days left the people panic-stricken.
According to a reliable source, the AR “in spite of the stand taken together,” went to the camp to make sure that it was vacant and “took photographs of the place.” The source also informed that the AR Jawans have shifted to a neighbouring village where it is organising a medical camp.
However, TNL vice president Tuisem Nungbi, who was at the site, told this newspaper that the medical camp was just a “namesake” for the AR to remain in Sihai village for the day.
“The medical camp is just a namesake and only a few villagers went for health check up because of the fear that has been instilled in them,” said Nungbi. “The remaining AR stationed in the village is about 15-16 vehicles and they are expected to leave (the village) on Wednesday night,” he added.
Sources from the NSCN (IM) have informed that their cadres have been shifted to an undisclosed location.
While terming the contentious NSCN (IM) camp as “unauthorised,” the Press Information Bureau (Defence Wing), GoI, said in a statement that “the matter (stand-off) was addressed by the security forces at the appropriate level so as to ensure no further inconvenience is caused to the local people.”
“The attempt by the group (NSCN-IM) to push the security forces to use force was responded with great restraint thereby ensuring that the issue did not escalate further and 21 long years of negotiations were not allowed to go waste. This assumes importance as the Government has worked extremely hard to settle the issue once and for all and the two are at the threshold of inking the deal,” read the statement, while maintaining that setting up of unauthorised camp violates the ground rules of the ceasefire.
“In fact, in the spirit of maintaining the momentum in negotiations achieved after signing of the Framework Agreement, the security forces have been extremely careful not to escalate in spite of provocation from NSCN (IM) and approached the Chairman (of) CFMG though he has no mandate beyond Nagaland,” it added.
It claimed that the mass protest rally “orchestrated” by the Naga outfit by inciting tribal sentiments against the AR “will only be counter-productive” and earn the wrath of the people. It also advised the NSCN (IM) not to break the ceasefire ground rules “that will jeopardise the final agreement and disrupt normal life of common citizens.”
The NSCN (IM) has decided to blacklist News18 with immediate effect after the website failed to issue a corrigendum in connection with an alleged statement made by an executive member of the outfit’s steering committee, V. Horam, despite issuing a clarification on how the reporter from the news portal had “misquoted” him.
The group stated that Horam told the reporter of the website: "Nagas being Christian community need to be alert. Naga Army and our intelligence agencies are alert even though there is no visible threat at the moment” but twisted it to “NSCN (IM) vows to defeat ISIS in case they choose to attack Nagaland” in a report that was published on April 26.
Describing the matter as “annoying,” the statement said that “the NSCN/GPRN is left with no option but to condemn News18 for its irresponsible professional practice.”
It may be mentioned that Horam had earlier told this newspaper (report published on April 28) that there was no visible threat to the “nation of Nagalim” in the wake of terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka and expressed discontent over the news report by News18.