I.
Overview
Led by Democratic Alliance
of Nagaland, Nagaland remained relatively peaceful as a
result of the ongoing peace process between the government
of India and Naga armed opposition groups - National Socialist
Council of Nagalim (Issac-Muivah) and the National Socialist
Council of Nagalim (Kaplang). The government of India signed
cease-fire agreements with both the factions of the NSCN.
In December 2004, NSCN (IM) leaders, Issac Swu and T Muivah
came to India and after a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, both sides reiterated to find a “mutually acceptable
and honourable solution”.
Despite cease-fire, highhandedness
of the security forces continued unabated. The State government
and the civil society groups protested the extrajudicial
execution of Khandemo Kiran on 13 September 2004. At around
1 pm, two Naga youth riding on a motorcycle were reportedly
shot at without any warning by the Central Reserve Police
Force personnel at a checkpost at Merapani on the Assam-Nagaland
border. Khandemo Kiran, who was riding pillion, was
killed on the spot. His friend, Lilamo Lotha, was seriously
injured and rushed to hospital. Although the CRPF personnel
claimed that the youth were shot at when they did not heed
to their signal to stop at a check-point, a spot verification conducted by a High
Level Nagaland Official team and statements of eyewitnesses
revealed that the security forces opened fire without warning.
The deceased and his friend had come from Bhandari to repair
their bike in a workshop at Merapani Seed Farm Junction,
just 400 feets away from the 61st CRPF camp at ‘D’ Sector.
After repairing their bike, the duo tested it by riding
about 200 feets towards the gate of the 61 CRPF. When they
made a “U- turn” to return to the workshop to pay for the
repairing charge, a CRPF personnel identified as Havildar
Manowar Ram Kumar standing at the road side fired randomly
at the two, killing Khandemo Kiran on the spot. Even the
workshop owner testified that the killing was of extrajudicial
nature. The Nagaland Police further alleged that the CPRF
jawans had washed away the bloodstain before they reached
at the scene.
On 2 October 2004 morning,
at least 35 persons died and over 100 were injured in two
simultaneous bomb blasts by alleged non-Naga armed opposition
groups at a railway station and nearby Hongkong Market in
Dimapur, Nagaland. The platform was crowded with people,
including school children, waiting to board the train to
Bokajan in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, when the bomb
planted near the entrance went off.
There have been reports
of killings in the rivalry amongst different factions of
the Naga armed opposition groups.
On 27 May 2004, unidentified
gunmen shot at a well-known Civil Hospital surgeon Dr Maong-
wati Aier in the hospital premises in Dimapur in broad daylight.
On 18 October 2004, hundreds
of students from various educational institutions protested
at Phek against targeting educational institutions and innocent
school students by cadres of both factions of the NSCN.
On 22 September 2004, a Class B student of Chokri Baptist
School in Chetheba was reportedly shot while going to school.
Another two students of Government High School Boys’ Hostel,
Chetheba, were allegedly physically assaulted, an elderly
man was mercilessly beaten and two school buildings at Chesezu
were damaged by firing by cadres of NSCN-IM. In a factional
clash between the cadres of NSCN (IM) and Federal Government
of Nagaland (FGN) in Lasumi village under the Pfutsero subdivision
of the Phek district in October 2004, several houses in
the village were destroyed.
On 16 December 2004, unidentified
gunmen shot dead Naga Youth Movement (NYM) president Besulhu
Tetaco and injured another member in Kohima.
On 18 March 2004, hundreds
of non-tribals, mainly labourers and traders, were reportedly
deported from Kohima by the district administration for
not possessing mandatory Inner Line Permits or valid documents.
Hundreds of alleged illegal migrants were reportedly herded
into a playground. Many of these people, their hands tied,
were put on trucks and sent to Dimapur later. While immigration and violations of the
ILP pose serious problems in the Northeast, the State government
often fails to take appropriate actions and abdicates its
responsibility to non-state groups. On 3 August 2004, the
Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) asked all the “non-local”
shopkeepers to shut down their business establishments in
Kohima and keep off streets following alleged rape of a
four-year-old tribal girl by alleged Bangladeshi labourers,
who were engaged in a Church construction, at Lerie colony
in Kohima on 29 July 2004.
On the morning of 22 November
2004, 45-year-old Keijangpao Daimei, an assistant teacher
of Khoupum primary school was shot dead near the eastern
gate of Chingmeirong Kabui Khul under Heingang police station.
Later a statement purportedly issued by KK Pamei, security
commander, FGN, Zeliangrong region, claimed responsibility
for the killing. The statement identified the dead man as
Gaichampou Pamei, and accused him of being ‘against the
nation’.
