Kohima, May 16: Over 5,000 people braved two blasts in Kohima and a warning from the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) to participate in the birth centennial of the pioneer of Naga insurgency, Angami Zapfu Phizo. The first explosion occurred around 8 am at the playground near which the centenary programme was to begin three hours later.
Another blast rocked the area after the event got under way as scheduled. Some people seated in one of the stands within the playground ran for cover on hearing the explosion, but returned within minutes.
Police said nobody was injured in the blasts, which were presumably meant to keep people away from the centenary celebration. The event coincided with Naga “plebiscite day”.
Though the two blasts could not trigger a total public boycott of the programme, the secretary of the A.Z. Phizo Centenary Celebration Committee and writer Kaka D. Iralu was allegedly detained by the NSCN (I-M) at one of its camps until late afternoon. He was abducted on Thursday.
The centenary celebration has been the subject of debate ever since it was planned. Like the NSCN (I-M), the Naga Hoho and the Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights opposed the initiative. The Naga National Council (Panger) followed suit.
They opposed the centennial function on the ground that Phizo was born on May 4, but people with “vested interests” were trying to twist facts to their advantage.
In a message from London, the insurgency pioneer’s daughter and Naga National Council president Adinno Phizo said the community “willingly expressed” its choice for an “independent Naga nation” on May 16, 1951, and her father’s birth centennial could not have been observed on a better day.
“Every morning, when our people wake up, the ubiquitous and unsightly Indian occupation army makes one aware that India’s blatant attempt to intimidate the Nagas into submission has not gone away,” she said.
Ironically, police and India Reserve Battalion personnel were securing the venue of the function even as the statement was being read out.
Columnist and former diplomat Kuldip Nayar was expected to attend, but did not turn up. He sent a message, which was read out before the gathering. Expressing optimism about the Naga peace process, he said: “We should never go back to hostilities.”
Nayar had interacted with Phizo in London and other Naga insurgent leaders during his days as an envoy.