India's Naga separatists threaten to resume violence after decades-long truce

GUWAHATI, India - An armed separatist group in a remote northeast Indian state on Friday threatened to "resume violent armed resistance" after nearly three decades of ceasefire, accusing New Delhi of failing to honour promises in earlier agreements.

The Naga insurgency, India's oldest, is aimed at creating a separate homeland of Nagalim that unites parts of India's mountainous northeast with areas of neighbouring Myanmar for ethnic Naga people. About 20,000 people have died in the conflict since it began in 1947.

A ceasefire between the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), a leading separatist group, and Indian security forces has held since it was enforced in 1997 and the group signed an agreement with New Delhi in 2015 towards striking a resolution on their demands.

But talks have stagnated since and in a statement Friday, the group's chief Thuingaleng Muivah accused India of "betrayal of the letter and spirit" of the 2015 agreement.

India's interior ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Muivah's remarks.

In a statement, Muivah urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi's federal government to "respect and honour" the 2015 agreement, which he said "officially recognised and acknowledged" the right to a sovereign flag and constitution for the separatists.

Muivah proposed a "third party intervention" to resolve the impasse, threatening that it would resume violence if "such a political initiative was rejected".

"The violent confrontation between India and Nagalim shall be purely on account of the deliberate betrayal and breach of commitment by India and its leadership to honour the letter and spirit of Framework Agreement of 2015," he said.

"India and its leadership shall be held responsible for the catastrophic and adverse situation that will arise out of the violent armed conflict between India and Nagalim," he said. REUTERS