http://indianexpress.com/article/india/meghalayas-most-wanted-militant-norrok-killed-4545023/
By:
IANS | Shillong | Published:February 26, 2017 8:47 pm
Meghalaya’s Special Force-10 (SF-10) commandos have shot dead a militant leader, wanted in killings of two Meghalaya jail officials and seven Assam tribesmen, a police official said on Sunday.
Singbirth N. Marak alias Norrok X. Momin, a former military wing chief of the United A’chik Liberation Army (UALA), was killed and four or five of his followers were injured in a fierce gunfight on Saturday, a police official said.
One AK-rifle, one pistol and a grenade were recovered from the gunbattle site.
Based on intelligence inputs, the commandos raided Matronggre forested area, 11 km of Resubelpara, the headquarters of North Garo Hills district, about 315 km west of Meghalaya state capital of Shillong.
“The gunfight began when the armed militants fired at the commandos and refused to surrender,” Dalton P. Marak, the district police chief of North Garo Hills, told IANS over phone.
Norrok, who earlier surrendered before Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, was on the run after the government decided to take action against him for the killings of two Williamnagar prisons officials in East Garo Hills in 2010 and of seven Rabha tribesmen in Assam’s Goalapara district in 2013.
In fact, the UALA was formally disbanded after Norrok and the outfit’s chairman Novembirth Marak and 68 cadres surrendered with their weapons and ammunition to the Chief Minister on June 10 last year.
Police officials said that the death of Norrok is the deadliest blow to his newly formed United A’chik National Front (UANF) militant outfit, which operates in Meghalaya and Assam border areas.
“Norrok’s death in the gun battle was a major achievement for us (Meghalaya Police) as he along with William Sangma, a hardcore criminal, was trying to raise the ugly head of militancy in the bordering areas with the help of NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) militants,” Dalton said.
The police official said that the combing operation is on to nab the fleeing militants.
Written by
Praveen Swami | New Delhi | Published:February 26, 2017 5:49 am
Manipur’s government has been regularly briefed on the negotiations, with New Delhi and Imphal regularly exchanging formal correspondence on the issue. (Source: PTI photo)
http://indianexpress.com/article/in...-naga-autonomy-talks-near-resolution-4544157/
At secret meetings held every week, R N Ravi, the Indian government’s official interlocutor on Nagaland, and insurgent leader Thuingaleng Muivah have been hammering out details of a political autonomy deal for Naga communities living inside and outside the state, a top government official familiar with the talks told
The Sunday Express. Held at hotels, guest houses and conventional venues, the meetings have involved 16-18-member delegations of the Muviah-led National Socialist Council of Nagalim’s Isak-Muviah (NSCN-IM) faction, the primary insurgent group in the state, while New Delhi has been represented by Ravi alone.
“The idea of not having a delegation from the Government of India side,” the official said, “is to be able to tell the Nagas, look, here is one person who enjoys the confidence of the political executive, and will take what you propose straight to the top to get a yes or no answer.”
In order to ensure that a consensus develops around any future deal, the official said, Manipur’s government has been regularly briefed on the negotiations, with New Delhi and Imphal regularly exchanging formal correspondence on the issue.
“However,” the official added, “this process has been on hold since November, when the election process was initiated in Manipur.”
In a press release issued on Friday, the NSCN appeared to suggest an early deal was possible, saying “the Government of India has recognised the legal rights of the Nagas and candidly proclaimed integration the legitimate right of the Nagas… Whether we like it or not there is going to be a transformation in the history of the Nagas very soon”.
Large Naga populations live in Manipur’s hill areas, and Naga insurgents have long demanded that these communities be made part of Nagalim, a territory encompassing all areas where the ethnic group lives. The demand has been bitterly resisted by Manipur, especially by the Hindu communities of the plains.
New Delhi, the official said, believes a breakthrough has been made in the talks with the NSCN agreeing, in principle, that Naga communities can exercise autonomous political rights within existing stage boundaries. The evolving formula, it believes, would meet the group’s demand for integration, while at once addressing Manipur’s territorial anxieties.
“I’m afraid I can’t share more details at this stage,” the official said, “but I do believe we have a formulation all sides can live with.”
Though the secrecy that has surrounded the talks has bred scepticism on the Framework Agreement signed in 2015, the legal basis of the ongoing deal, the official said
“the fact that frequent, granular negotiations are underway should tell you something about the level of understanding that has evolved”.
In a recent interview, Ravi said the Framework Agreement remained secret as the Government did not wish to “serve half-cooked meals”. “As and when we reach the final agreement, the Framework Agreement will be part of that,” he said.
