Naga talks: Centre's envoy AK Mishra makes first visit to NSCN-IM camp, meets Muivah

In what was called a "historic development," the Centre's interlocutor AK Mishra on Tuesday visited the designated camp of Naga insurgent group, NSCN-IM near Dimapur in Nagaland and met the outfit's general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah and a few other leaders.

Sources in NSCN-IM told DH that it was the first time an envoy of the Centre visited their camp, where the leaders and members of the rebel group have been staying since signing the ceasefire in 1997.

Mishra made a "courtesy meeting" with Muivah as the latter was hospitalised twice in the past few months. He is likely to have a formal meeting with NSCN-IM leaders on Thursday.

The meeting is seen as significant given Muivah's direct criticism of the Centre recently, when the rebel leader alleged that the Centre was going back on its words made in the "framework agreement" signed on August 3, 2015.

He is also likely to separately meet leaders of NNPGs, a forum of seven other Naga rebel groups which signed another preliminary agreement with the Centre in 2017.

Mishra, the former special director of the Intelligence Bureau, replaced former Nagaland Governor R N Ravi as the Centre's interlocutor for Naga talks in September last year. Ravi was transferred as Tamil Nadu Governor after he was criticised by the NSCN-IM.

The Centre has signed two preliminary agreements with NSCN-IM in 2015 and with NNPG in 2017 but the final agreement to end the decades-old Naga conflict has not yet been signed, mainly due to NSCN-IM insisting on its "core demand" for a separate flag and Constitution for the Nagas. The demand has been turned down by the Centre, resulting in a stalemate over the talks.

Naga groups including the NSCN-IM claim that Nagas were never part of India.

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