Shillong, Feb. 13: Dismissing talk of the Centre isolating the Khaplang faction of the NSCN, the Union minister of state for home, I.D. Swami, today said the government had not lost sight of the fact that the outfit had as much a stake in Nagaland?s future as the Isak-Muivah group.
Swami told newspersons here that the Centre would hold talks with all insurgent outfits of the Northeast, provided they did not set any conditions. He said efforts were on to convince the NSCN (K) to opt for a dialogue and that the Centre had deputed secretaries in the home ministry to talk with S.S. Khaplang.
?Our policy is the same for all insurgent outfits. We want them to come forward for talks without any strings attached. We have begun such a process with the NSCN (I-M) and the Bodo militants, and hope to persuade other outfits to abjure violence and begin negotiations across the table.?
The Union minister said there was no reason for anybody to doubt that the Centre would not invite Khaplang, who heads the NSCN (K), for talks. ?The NSCN (K) has a presence in Nagaland and, therefore, cannot be isolated from the peace process,? he added.
On Nationalist Congress Party leader Purno A. Sangma?s claim that the outlawed A?chik National Volunteers Council had sent feelers to the Union home ministry for peace talks, Swami said he was not aware of any such development. He also disputed the authenticity of media reports stating that the Karbi Anglong-based United Democratic People?s Solidarity had begun negotiations with the ministry.
The minister?s visit to the Northeast coincided with a tour of the region by R.C.A. Jain, the Union home secretary for border management. The senior bureaucrat had visited some areas along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya on Tuesday, apparently to gather information for a report that would form the basis of a new border security plan. Swami lent credence to reports on the objective of Jain?s visit, saying the Centre was working on a policy to check militancy through better border management in the region.
He said the Centre would continue to mount pressure on the Bangladesh government to prevent militant outfits of the Northeast from setting up camps in its territory. A meeting with the Bangladesh external affairs minister is slated for this month. ?We are aware that there are still many militant hideouts in Bangladesh and have made known our displeasure to the government of that country,? Swami said.
On the progress of the border fencing project, the minister said the entire boundary with Bangladesh would be secured by 2007. ?Of the 4,096-km border with Bangladesh, about 900 km has already been fenced.?
Swami said the Satgacchi experience was a wake-up call for India. ?We would not want a repeat of the incidents that took place at Satgacchi recently. Bangladesh has been trying to push in people in small groups and we need to secure the international border in three states of the Northeast at any cost.?
The BSF had recently caught 43 families from Bangladesh, most of them nomadic snake charmers, transgressing into Satgacchi in West Bengal.