Dimapur (Nagaland): An influential separatist group in Nagaland on Thursday threatened to "eliminate" rival top self-exiled Naga guerrilla leader Thuingaleng Muivah if he visits the state.
The S S Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) is engaged in a bitter turf war for territorial supremacy with the rival faction headed by guerrilla leaders Muivah and Isak Chishi Swu.
Muivah, general secretary of NSCN-IM, arrived in New Delhi late on Wednesday from Amsterdam for fresh peace talks with the Central Government at the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"We have already deployed about 70 fighters around Dimapur town to attack and finish off Muivah if he tries to set foot in Nagaland," NSCN-K leader and spokesman for the outfit, Kughalo Mulatonu said. "If required we shall send more reinforcements to accomplish our mission."
Muivah and Swu are expected to visit Camp Hebron, the NSCN-IM headquarters located near Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland. Swu is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi after Christmas.
The two NSCN-IM leaders are to visit Nagaland for holding talks with their cadres and other leaders, besides consultations with the civil society, to give their feedback on the progress of the negotiations. Dates for the visit to Camp Hebron are not finalised.
The NSCN split into two factions in 1988 with Swu and Muivah heading one group and Khaplang leading the rival faction known as NSCN-K.
"Muivah is a traitor and we cannot allow him to enter Nagaland. He is trying to come to Nagaland with the help of Indian security forces," Mulatonu said. "Coming to Nagaland would mean bloodshed and it would be better if they stay in New Delhi."
The two factions are engaged in a bitter fratricidal war that has claimed the lives of at least 200 cadres in the past five years.
However, NSCN-IM leader Kraibo Chawang told IANS over telephone from New Delhi: "We would go ahead with the plans as scheduled and such threats are not going to affect us. Khaplang is not for Nagas; his group is a mouthpiece of the Indian Government. The strength of NSCN-K is only in papers."
The NSCN-IM and Government negotiators have held more than 50 rounds of talks since entering into a ceasefire in 1997. The NSCN-K is also operating a ceasefire with New Delhi since 2001 although formal peace talks are yet to begin.
"We do not have any ceasefire with NSCN-IM and hence our threat does not in any way violate the truce we are having with New Delhi," Mulatonu said. The insurgency in Nagaland has claimed around 25,000 lives since 1947.
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