Assam-Nagaland border issue is political: GPRN/NSCN

Dimapur, April 14 (MExN): The GPRN/NSCN has asserted today that the Assam-Nagaland border issue is political, not administrative.  

In a press release issued by its MIP, the political group maintained that the particular boundary issue is “a result of British mismanagement” of indigenous Naga people and their land “without taking the landowners into confidence.” It pointed out that “arbitrary division of ancestral Naga lands did not matter to them so long as their administrative and political objectives were met.”  

It further stated that after (Indian) independence, successive Indian governments “failed to transfer Naga lands to Nagaland.” Quoting the Sir Akbar Hydari Agreement of 1947, the GPRN/NSCN stated that Clause 4 and 6 state that approximately an area of 4,974.16 Sq. Miles occupied by Assam “must be transferred back to Nagaland.”  

Asserting that “ancestral land of the Nagas” cannot be used to “accommodate illegal immigrants and other landless people,” the group urged the Dimapur district administration to give “full co-operation” to United Naga Tribes Association of Border Areas (UNTABA), which is “diligently working to educate both the Nagas and Assamese to live in peace recognizing historical facts about ancestral Naga lands.”  

Stating that the historical facts “cannot be erased,” the GPRN/NSCN demanded the State government to “direct the district administration in all border areas to assist UNTABA in protecting and defending Naga lands against immigrants.”