Guwahati, Jun 4 : At least 11 Naga rebels have been killed when two rival separatist factions clashed in the north-east Indian state of Nagaland, police say.
Police said 10 of the dead belonged to the Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN).The clash with the Muivah faction took place in a village not far from Nagaland’s commercial centre, Dimapur.
The NSCN is the strongest separatist group in the north-east. It split in 1988 and has seen in-fighting since.
‘Huge panic’
Rebels of the Muivah and the Khaplang factions fought with rifles and light machine guns in Seitikhima, near Dimapur town, police said.
“The gun battle started early on Wednesday and lasted for three hours. There is huge panic in the area,” a Nagaland police official said.
Both factions blamed each other for starting the fighting.
Kraibo Chawang, spokesman of the Muivah faction, told the BBC that their fighters had killed 10 guerrillas of the Khaplang group.
“We crushed them when they tried to attack our camp at Seitikhima,” he said.
One of the dead belonged to the Muivah faction, police said.
A spokesman for the Khaplang group, Kughalu Mulatonu, told the BBC that the Muivah group had launched an unprovoked assault on their fighters .
“They are escalating the conflict and we have to hit back,” he said.
Split
Last month too, 14 fighters of the Khaplang group were killed in a clash with the Muivah group at the same place.
Nearly 50 people, including civilians, have been killed in and around Dimapur in intensified fighting between the two Naga factions.
The NSCN split in 1988, when Burmese Naga rebel leader SS Khaplang parted ways with the main group, led by Thuingaleng Muivah and Issac Chisi Swu.
Both factions have been maintaining a ceasefire with the Indian security forces since 1997 but they have been fighting viciously against each other.
More than 400 rebels have died in factional clashes between these two groups since 1988.
BBC News
Police said 10 of the dead belonged to the Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN).The clash with the Muivah faction took place in a village not far from Nagaland’s commercial centre, Dimapur.
The NSCN is the strongest separatist group in the north-east. It split in 1988 and has seen in-fighting since.
‘Huge panic’
Rebels of the Muivah and the Khaplang factions fought with rifles and light machine guns in Seitikhima, near Dimapur town, police said.
“The gun battle started early on Wednesday and lasted for three hours. There is huge panic in the area,” a Nagaland police official said.
Both factions blamed each other for starting the fighting.
Kraibo Chawang, spokesman of the Muivah faction, told the BBC that their fighters had killed 10 guerrillas of the Khaplang group.
“We crushed them when they tried to attack our camp at Seitikhima,” he said.
One of the dead belonged to the Muivah faction, police said.
A spokesman for the Khaplang group, Kughalu Mulatonu, told the BBC that the Muivah group had launched an unprovoked assault on their fighters .
“They are escalating the conflict and we have to hit back,” he said.
Split
Last month too, 14 fighters of the Khaplang group were killed in a clash with the Muivah group at the same place.
Nearly 50 people, including civilians, have been killed in and around Dimapur in intensified fighting between the two Naga factions.
The NSCN split in 1988, when Burmese Naga rebel leader SS Khaplang parted ways with the main group, led by Thuingaleng Muivah and Issac Chisi Swu.
Both factions have been maintaining a ceasefire with the Indian security forces since 1997 but they have been fighting viciously against each other.
More than 400 rebels have died in factional clashes between these two groups since 1988.
BBC News
1 comments:
we have seen and examined the dead bodies and most of them were drug addicts!
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