DIMAPUR: On the Litan issue, the NSCN-IM has accused the “Kuki militants and the Indian security forces of engaging in ‘scorched-earth tactics'”.
In a statement issued to Newmai News Network on Wednesday, the NSCN-IM said that nothing could be further from the truth as “made to believe by false pictures given by the kuki frontal bodies on the Litan burning issue”. The NSCN-IM further said the “complicity” of the security forces is simply appalling. “What began as a result of the Kuki drunkards beating up one Tangkhul was used as pretext by the Kukis militants to establish collusion with the security forces to target Tangkhul houses”, the NSCN-IM stated. It alleged that security forces were blatantly seen joining the Kuki militants with few of them using masks to hide their faces.
The NSCN-IM statement then said that everything is made to look loud and clear that the Kuki militants enjoyed the patronage of the security forces with the green signal from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. “It was, therefore, a premeditated arson committed by the Kuki militants against the Tangkhul Nagas”, the NSCN-IM statement further alleged.
“In the typical twisted manner of using the incident, the Kuki organizations jump into the fray to play victim card blaming the Tangkhuls with NSCN support responsible for the burning of the kuki houses”, the statement added.
The NSCN-IM then said, “The so-called World Kuki-Zo Intellectual Council (WKZIC) even has the audacity to write to the Prime Minister of India playing the victim card in the hands of the Tangkhuls and NSCN”, adding, “While the actual story is all about ‘breach of rule of law’ by the Indian security forces assisting the Kuki militants in burning down of the Tangkhul houses”. This is a grave violation of human rights, the NSCN-IM further added.
The NSCN-IM then asserted that in the face of this “brute force of aggression on Litan Tangkhuls, the die has been cast, forcing the NSCN to put on record the Litan burning issue as a symbol of aggression against the Naga nation using the unruly Kuki militants as the frontal body of the government of India against the political rights of the Nagas”. The NSCN-IM then said it “shall therefore, stand the ground come what may to defend the land of the God given Naga nation”.