Centre may reimpose ban on NSCN(K)

The Centre is likely to reimpose the ban on S S Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) which ambushed the Army killing 18 soldiers in Manipur last week.

The Home Ministry has prepared a Cabinet note for declaring the Naga rebel group an illegal outfit. The note will be discussed by the Cabinet Committee for Security (CCS).

Once CCS clears the proposal, NSCN(K) will be declared a banned group under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

 The ban on NSCN(K) was lifted in 2001 after the group entered into a ceasefire agreement with the Centre.

Khaplang, a Naga from Myanmar, is based in the neighbouring country and most camps of the group are believed to be located there.

NSCN(K) had stepped up attacks in the last couple of months after it refused to extend the ceasefire agreement.

Intelligence agencies believe that Chinese authorities through Ulfa chief Paresh Baruah had persuaded Khaplang to come out of the agreement. Baruah is believed to have told 75-year-old Khaplang, who is presently undergoing treatment in a Myanmarese hospital, that China would support them in their activities. NSCN(K) was formed on April 30, 1988, after an assassination attempt on the general secretary of the rival NSCN(IM) chief Thuingaleng Muivah.

NSCN(K) aims at the establishment of a “Greater Nagaland” comprising Naga dominated areas of India and Myanmar. It runs a government-in-exile, government of the People’s Republic of Nagaland, and is headquartered in Myanmar. Officials said while the ban is one of the several ways of crippling its activities, security establishment is aware of the urgency in augmenting the security apparatus on the Indo-Myanmar boundary.

There were demands for replacing the Assam Rifles with the Border Security Force, the move could take time and there is lot of opposition to the idea.