Centre asks Nagaland to tackle factional clashes

Kohima, Sep 8 (UNI) The Centre has reportedly taken serious note of the continued inter-factional clashes among various underground factions and asked the Nagaland government to cautiously tackle the situation.

Unabated inter-factional clashes have caused a lot of disturbances in several pockets of the state and people fled from their homes, official sources said.

The NSCN(K) and Federal Government of Nagaland(FGN) continued firing at a NSCN-IM camp near Phek district since Tuesday, killing three NSCN-IM cadres and injuring a few others, sources added.

Meanwhile, Lt Gen R V Kulkarni, who is also the chairman of the Cease Fire Monitoring Group (CFMG) of NSCN-IM and the Cease Fire Supervisory Board (CFSB) of NSCN(K), said he has submitted a report to the Centre on the inter-factional clashes and appealed all the underground factions to stop factional feuds.

The state government had taken the matter seriously and entrusted the state Commissioner to tackle the issue.

Commissioner T N Mannen said he had talks with the NSCN-IM leaders to withdraw their forces from the camp.

Tension ran high in the area as reports of heavy gun battle between the outfits occurred.

The District Administration had deployed Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) and Nagaland Armed Police (NAP) in the Phek Basa and nearby villages to restore peace.

UNI AS PP JYN SSC DS1553