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The Khaplang faction has not ruled out the possibility of joining peace talks. I asked Sumi whether his group would accept an Indian invitation for talks. “All I can say now is that we are in a state of war with India,” he said.
In the wee hours of September 27, the Indian Army carried out a surprise attack in Mon, Nagaland’s northernmost district bordering Arunachal Pradesh. Two days earlier, a similar strike had been executed at Pounkori village in Phek district, which borders Manipur to the south. Both times, the target was the same: militants belonging to the Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland.
The NSCN(K) has its base across the India-Myanmar border to the east. Its den in India has been the hilly and thickly forested region comprising Mon and Phek, Ukhrul district in Manipur, and Tirap and Changlang districts in Arunachal Pradesh.
The operation in Mon was the most high-profile one since June 2015, when the Army took out militant camps along the Myanmar border in a much-publicised, cross-border surgical strike. But, unlike in 2015, the Army has been tightlipped about the Mon operation. It did not immediately reveal the number of militants killed, nor did it divulge details about the operation.
Sources in the defence ministry later said around 75 militants were killed, while independent estimates put the figure around 40. “I don’t have the figures. But we expect [having inflicted] heavy casualties,” Col C. Konwar, the Army’s spokesperson in Nagaland, told THE WEEK. Asked about the basis of that expectation, Konwar said, “We have received information from Myanmar that the casualties have been severe. We are relying on it.”
What the Army did not expect was the speed with which the NSCN(K) would retaliate. In the wee hours of October 10, barely a fortnight after the Mon operation, militants struck an Army base in Arunachal Pradesh. As news of the attack broke, the defence ministry kept a studied silence. “Yes, the attack took place, but [there was] no casualty on our side,” said a senior Army officer later that day.
An NSCN(K) spokesperson claimed otherwise. “Our combined operation group comprising about 70 cadres launched an all-out offensive on Indian Army camps at Nyausau in Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh,” he told THE WEEK. “More than 40 Indian soldiers were killed and many injured. The Naga army used mortars, 40mm launchers, rocket launchers, machine guns and assorted automatic weapons and explosives. The attack began at 1am and lasted eight hours.”
Defence ministry sources said the Army had indeed been caught off guard, as it had not expected the NSCN(K) to mount a swift counterattack. Apparently, the Army is now carefully weighing its options. “We are ready to break the NSCN(K) network,” said an officer. “We will respond at an appropriate time.”
The Army maintains that the Mon operation did not involve troops crossing the international border. According to an officer of the Army’s eastern command, there were around 70 paratroopers who were ready to cross the border, but did not. “They stayed [in Indian territory] and attacked NSCN(K) camps, which regrouped to undertake a fierce attack on us,” said the officer.
Hostile stand: NSCN(K) spokesperson Isak Sumi (wearing hat) claims the group has the capability to strike India “anywhere, anytime”.
The militants, however, say the Army’s claims of having inflicted heavy casualties on the NSCN(K), and not having crossed the border, are not true. After the Mon operation, I contacted Isak Sumi, the NSCN(K) spokesperson and finance minister in the Myanmar-based ‘government of Nagalim’. “The Indian Army is lying,” said the self-styled colonel. “They came deep into our territory and carried out surgical strikes. They travelled around 20km.”
He said both the sides suffered casualties. “We lost seven to nine soldiers,” Sumi told me. “Two of the bodies are yet to be recovered. Three Indian Army soldiers died on the spot, and almost 20 were seriously injured.”
During the interaction, Sumi said the NSCN(K) would soon retaliate. “We know how to deliver,” he said. “We will react the same way.”
Soon after the NSCN(K) carried out that threat on October 10, I got in touch with Sumi again. “We did not attack from Myanmar territory,” he told me. “We crossed India’s so-called border. Let the world know that we are not confined to the Myanmar jungles. We have the capability to strike anywhere, anytime.”
Ironically, the northeast is caught in a cycle of violence at a time when the Union government and the Isak-Muivah faction of the NSCN are said to be close to announcing a historic peace agreement. The Isak-Muivah faction had started talks with the government in 1998, three years after prime minister Narasimha Rao met its leaders in Paris and a year after it signed a ceasefire agreement. The Khaplang faction had also signed a ceasefire pact in 2001, but was never invited to the negotiating table. The reason was that its founder, S.S. Khaplang, was a Myanmarese citizen, unlike Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah of the rival group.
In the past two decades, the Isak-Muivah faction has held more than 50 rounds of talks with the Union government, gradually shedding its militant image. The space vacated by the group has been occupied by the Khaplang faction, which withdrew from the ceasefire agreement in 2015. It is now led by lieutenants of Khaplang, who died in June this year.
Security experts say that any agreement that does not involve the Khaplang faction is unlikely to bring lasting peace to the northeast. They point out that it has a stronger presence in the region than its rival group.
For its part, the Khaplang faction has not ruled out the possibility of joining peace talks. I asked Sumi whether his group would accept an Indian invitation for talks. “All I can say now is that we are in a state of war with India,” he said.
Opposition leaders in Nagaland say the Union government is escalating tensions by not giving the Khaplang faction an opportunity to come to the negotiating table. They allege that the state government, led by the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland, which is an ally of the BJP, is misleading the Union government. “The ruling coalition in Nagaland supports the NSCN(IM), and it won election because of that,” said state Congress president K. Therie. “They did not initiate talks between the Centre and the NSCN(K) fearing electoral losses.”
Therie said Rao had begun the peace process by meeting NSCN(IM) leaders even before they agreed to a ceasefire. What is stopping the government from making a similar gesture to the Khaplang faction, he asked. “When I was a minister [in the Congress government that was in power from 1993 to 2003], I had a series of discussions with Khaplang and other senior NSCN(K) leaders,” said Therie. “They are not against the idea of coming to the talks table. But they do not want the NSCN(IM) to set the terms of reference. The government of India would have to give them equal prominence.”
If the Congress returned to power after the assembly elections due next year, said Therie, it would invite the Khaplang faction for talks. He pointed out that Khango Konyak, who has been named the new chief of this group, is an Indian Naga belonging to the Konyak tribe, which has presence in Nagaland, Manipur and parts of Arunachal Pradesh.
“We should seize the opportunity,” said Therie. “It would be a great achievement if we could send a direct message or agree to meet some of the NSCN(K) leaders abroad. You have shown your humane face to someone; why not to others as well?”
