Politics / Nagaland

Kohima, May 23: A Naga tribal union has clarified the applicability of the inner-line permit. The Konyak Union has reaffirmed that children born to Konyak woman with non-tribal husbands would need to apply for an inner-line permit. Konyak Nagas are the dominant community in Mon district. A resolution had been adopted in the past but “a fresh need has arisen to keep tabs on immigrants”, mostly Bangladeshis, the union said.

“Often, we find that the name of a man may be Konyak but his father’s name indicates he is not a Konyak,” said a member of the union from Mon. “If a Konyak woman marries a...

DIMAPUR, May 22 – Nagaland government has affected another major bureaucratic reshuffle, affecting at least ten Central and eight officials of State Civil Service according to an official notification issued on Tuesday. Among the bureaucrats affected by the transfer included both the deputy commissioner and sub-divisional officer (Civil) of Phek who had hit the headline during the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls in the state. While deputy commissioner Phek V Shashank Shekhar has been transfered and posted as additional secretary Social Welfare & Women Development and also as ex-officio in...

Kohima, May 20: One of the biggest challenges before Prime Minister-designate Manmohan Singh is only weeks away. The NSCN (I-M) has announced that its top leaders, Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, will visit Delhi next month to take up the contentious demand for integration of all contiguous Naga-inhabited areas with the next government at the Centre.

The militant group’s deputy kilonser (minister) of information and publicity, Kraibo Chawang, said the visit was scheduled before the Congress-led alliance was invited by the President to form the government. He said the NSCN (I-M) was not...

DIMAPUR, May 20 – Breaking his silence after release from captivity of the NSCN-IM, noted Naga scholar, writer and activist Kaka Iralu Wednesday expressed gratitude to God and all individuals and organisations that pleaded for his safe release.

Speaking over phone from his residence at Kohima, Kaka Iralu, still recuperating from the mental ordeal he had to undergo in captivity, told that he was “grateful to God for delivering me and to all those people, friends and well wishers who have pleaded for my safe release”.

“I was abducted by the orders of the civil set up of the NSCN but was in...

New Delhi, May 19: The Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) today set at rest rumours that it might snap ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), with the two Naga members of Parliament asserting that there was no question of supporting the Congress. They also iterated their support to the North East People’s Forum (NEPF), that was showing signs of a rift after the NDA was trounced at the Lok Sabha elections.

Lok Sabha MP W.W. Konyak and his Rajya Sabha counterpart T.R. Zeliang said the party’s alliance with the NDA would continue though the nature of the relationship would depend on the...

Kohima, May 19: Back home after four days in an NSCN (I-M) camp, author Kaka D. Iralu today said he had gone there at the militant group’s “invitation” and was not taken by force, as was being speculated. Iralu, the secretary of the A.Z. Phizo Birth Centenary Celebration Committee, went missing on Thursday and did not return home until Monday.

He was believed to have been abducted by the NSCN (I-M) because of its opposition to the centenary celebrations on May 16, which is observed as “national plebiscite day”.

The militant group said Phizo, who is acknowledged to be the pioneer of Naga...

KOHIMA, May 19 – Naga writer Kaka D Iralu, who was abducted on the eve of celebration of birth centenary of the pioneer of Naga political struggle late Angami Z Phizo, was released without any harm by NSCN(I-M) activists at Dimapur, police said here on Tuesday reports PTI.

Iralu, who was abducted from the capital town on May 14, was released at NSCN (I-M) ceasefire monitoring cell at Diphupar on Monday after holding him captive at the outfit’s headquarters “Hebron” near Dimapur. The writer was the secretary of birth centenary celebration committee which observed Phizo’s anniversary at Kohima...

Kohima, May 17: Nagaland PCC president S.C. Jamir has stalled the plans of chief minister Neiphiu Rio of supporting the Congress-led government at the Centre. Speaking over phone from New Delhi, former chief minister Jamir said Rio and his allies would not be allowed to join the Congress. “They are from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and were supporting the fundamentalists. How can they join the Congress?” he asked.

After the defeat of the BJP-led NDA in the general election, the Northeast People’s Forum (NEPF) with Rio as its convener has decided to chalk out a strategy for the...

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...

AIZAWL, May 16 – Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga Thursday expressed the hope that peace initiatives in the North East region would not be affected in the event of the Congress coming to power, reports PTI.

Zoramthanga, involved in the Naga peace deal and who is acting as the go-between the Centre and other insurgent groups of the region, said that Central leaders, who wanted national integrity would not derail the peace process that had been initiated during the NDA rule.

''Coalition politics have come to stay in the country and leaders in Delhi could never rule highandedly as in the...