KOHIMA, Sept 29 (MExN): A 4 years old little boy, Inato, fell victim to the bullet of a factional feud, while a girl, his mother’s sister and one cadre each of two warring groups sustained injuries when both the NSCNs factions turned tension-torn Zunheboto town into a near battle ground this morning at around 4 am.
The clash started at early morning hour when 40-50 heavily cadres of the NSCN-K attacked the rival’s camp at North Point. However, the clash was prevented from becoming a full battle due to timely intervention of the public. Had it not been for the public’s intervention, who started to shout and began to shoo away both the groups, the two sides would have suffered heavy casualties, source from Zunheboto said, as both the groups had geared themselves up for a ‘full scale war.’
The public had threatened both groups stating that if they refused to heed to their call they would beat and chase cadres of both the factions from the town area. Only after this threat both the sides stopped from firing at each other.
Lt Inato was on the back of his mother’s sister, a college student, when a stray bullet from the feuding cadres caught him and fell him on the spot. His mother’s sister also sustained injuries.
In the ensuing the battle one sergeant major of the NSCN-IM who mistook the rival cadres to be of his side got mixed up with latter and fell into net the NSCN-K cadres, however, when he was about to be killed the public gheroed the former from all quarters, which forced the NSCN-K cadres to escape leaving him with only minor injuries.
However, the NSCN-K cadres managed to snatch away his AK-56 rifle, source said.
One Lieutenant of the NSCN-K was also reported to be injured in the clash.
Latter the public of Zunheboto town held a rally at the town, along with the funeral service of Lt Inato and decided to chase away both the groups from town, however, it is learnt that cadres of two factions are reported to be in the town till the filing of this report.
While responding to the public demand NSCN-IM cadres agreed to move out of the town after dinner, but reported to have moved out only to about 100-200 metres away from the civilian areas. NSCN-K refuses to move out of the town, source also said.
“Anytime anything may happen”, Zunheboto Deputy Commissioner said, although he claimed that the situation is under control.
