KOHIMA, October 23 (NEPS): The GPRN/NSCN has dismissed the news item that appeared in section of local daily that their senior leaders - Alezo Venuh and K Mulatonu - are part of members of various armed groups tagged as India’s ‘most wanted.’
National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its website has reportedly mentioned names of 258 fugitives that included 57 who carry a bounty on their heads. Names of various leaders belonging to NSCN (K), NSCN (IM) and other North East groups have also figured in the Agency’s list of ‘most wanted’ and its report has been published in section of local daily.
Expressing his surprise on the news item featuring his name as ‘most wanted,’ Alezo Venuh, Envoy to the collective leadership, GPRN/NSCN, and Coordinator in the ongoing political dialogue between the Working Committee (WC) of NNPGs and the Government of India, while talking to NEPS over phone from Dimapur on Tuesday, said as soon as the ambush on Indian Army personnel in Manipur’s Chandel took place on June 4, 2015, he along with K Mulatonu was linked with the incident by NIA.
The Agency had wrongly implicated them for being involved in the ambush on Indian Army personnel in Chandel on June 4, 2015. Interestingly, the Agency has reportedly apologized for wrongly implicating them.
Venuh said they were never part of the incident in Chandel. He further disclosed that as soon as the incident took place in Chandel, the NIA officials from Guwahati had interrogated them (he and Mulatonu) and they found that there was no connection whatsoever between the incident and them. “After that, the NIA has given the official clarification on our position,” Venuh said. “So when I have never been part of the incident, NIA’s featuring my name in their website as ‘most wanted’ does not arise.”
On the political front, Venuh said the Government of India realized that the Naga issue should be resolved through ‘negotiations and dialogues.’ “On our part, we are doing our best and also the Government of India are giving their best to see that the almost a century-old Indo-Naga political issue is resolved at the earliest,” he said.
The Envoy, while appreciating the works of the local media in the State, also said that they should play a positive role as the talks between the Government of India and WC of NNPGs had been going in the right direction.
