Context

• Recently, the Assam Rifles started sending reinforcements to Sihai, which is a Naga village located in Manipur, on learning that the rebels of National Socialist Council of Nagaland Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) faction had set up an “unauthorised” camp.
• After five days of a standoff that left people panic-stricken, Assam Rifles personnel and NSCN-IM insurgents have agreed to withdraw from two remote villages of Ukhrul in Manipur.

About

What were the causes of standoff?

• The standoff was triggered by the setting up of an “unauthorised” camp by the rebels at Sihai village near the India-Myanmar border.
• The NSCN-IM has been in a peace mode since 1997 following its signing of a ceasefire agreement with the Central Government.
• According to ceasefire ground rules, members of the outfit cannot venture outside their designated camps which are located in Nagaland.
• The paramilitary force had learnt about the presence of the camp during a routine aerial recce. Subsequently, it had urged the locals and church leaders to tell the insurgents to vacate the camp as it was set up in gross violation of the ceasefire ground rules.

NSCN-IM:

• It is one of the largest militant groups fighting for an independent Naga homeland.
• Late IsakChishiSwu and ThuingalengMuivah, the founding fathers of NSCN-IM, was Chairman and General Secretary of NSCN-IM respectively.
• They have been engaged in guerrilla warfare against successive Indian administrations since the 1950s.
• One of the main demands of NSCN-IM has been the creation of a sovereign Naga territory that includes Naga-inhabited parts of neighbouring states like Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh as well as a portion of Burma across the international border, and leaders from those states have long been wary of any accord that would allow the annexation of parts of their land.
• Lack of infrastructure development in the region is one of the perceived reason for the decades’ long insurgency.
• On the political front, the NSCN-IM has divided its area of influence into 11 regions based on sub-tribe considerations and administrative convenience.
• In many areas, it runs a parallel government. There are four major ‘Ministries’ – Defence, Home, Finance and Foreign Affairs.
• Moreover, there are five other Ministries including Education, Information and Publicity, Forests and Minerals, Law and Justice and Religious Affairs.
• The most prominent among the Ministries is the ‘Home ministry’, which is considered as a replacement of the Indian State government machinery.
• In August 2015, NSCN-IM had entered into an historic Peace Accord (Framework Agreement) with Union government to bring lasting peace in Nagaland.