Overlooking rights of Rengma Nagas will complicate matter, says NSCN (IM)

Dimapur, June 14 (EMN): The NSCN (IM) on Monday accused the Karbi Students’ Association (KSA) of ‘befooling the people by being ignorant of their roots blinded by the proposed Karbi Anglong Autonomous Territorial Council (KAATC) syndrome’.

The group claimed that the KSA had “ignored the legitimate rights of the Rengma Nagas, who are the true sons of the soil in Karbi Anglong” in its reaction to NSCN’s press statement.

“Historical references are available in plenty about the bona fide status of the Rengma Nagas, or for that matter about the Karbis in the socio-political melee of Assam history. Irrespective of tribe affiliation, the Rengma Nagas or Karbis, nobody can play fool with the well documented historical records,” read the press statement.

“The Government of India’s scheme of things as proposed under the controversial KAATC should find their support from historical legitimacy. Simply to appease the Karbi militants at the cost of overlooking the indigenous Rengma Nagas will only complicate the matter,” it added.

The NSCN (IM) suggested the KSA to scrutinise themselves to check if their claim is supported by historical facts.

Claiming that the Karbis immigrated from several areas during the British rule, the group said the British declared the present Karbi Anglong areas as Rengma Naga Hills “vide 1841 Official Gazette”.

It also mentioned some books where 52 villages of Rengma Nagas were “recognised in the history”.

Denies link with DNLA

In a separate statement, the NSCN (IM) denied Indian security forces’ allegation that is using the Dimasa National Liberation Army (DNLA) as the new front “for the purpose of extortion in Assam”.

While accusing the security forces of indulging in making wild allegations against the NSCN despite in ceasefire for over two decades to facilitated peace talks, it said “the need to use other organisations for extortion does not arise at all”. “We go for legitimate tax collections from different commercial sources and have nothing to do with extortion as interpreted by the security forces,” it added.

The group also denied Brigadier Chipemmi Shimrang’s link with DNLA, saying that he “has not been around Nagalim since 2016”.

It went on to claim that the security forces killed eight DNLA cadres on May 23 “in a fake encounter” and the NSCN’s name should not be dragged in.