Manipur: Gunfight between NSCN (IM) and ZUF in Tamenglong, 1 Militant Killed

Tamenglong, March 13, 2020:

One cadre of the Manipur rebel outfit Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) has been killed in a crossfiring incident between the ZUF and the Isaak Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) at Lungchai village of Tamenglong district in Manipur.

The ZUF cadre, identified as Kadiningpou Gonmei, was shot dead during a gunfight between the ZUF and NSCN-IM, on Friday. The death of the cadre has triggered an alarm in the area and also among the members of ZUF.

A video has also surfaced which shows that the ZUF camps in Lungchai have been damaged completely. The camp wore a deserted look following the fight. “This is the camp of the ZUF. We broke this. The cadres have fled this place. This is the Lungchai camp,” said the one who recorded the video, suspected to be an NSCN (IM) cadre.

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ZUF is a militant group of Manipur which had vowed not to have any peace agreement with the government and continues to struggle for protection of the interest of the Zeliangrongs and its related indigenous communities. However, it agreed to join the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) to be a part of the peace process in order to secure a better future for the Zeliangrong people living in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.

A statement issued by the ZUF in November, 2019 said that after a careful analysis of the pros and cons, the ZUF joined the NNPGs in the peace talks as an integral part of the NSCN (Unification) or the GPRN/NSCN with the assurance that the political aspirations of the Zeliangrong people would be kept alive and pursued through democratic political processes in the post-solution scenario.

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The ZUF, had realized that if it did not become a party to the peace process, the younger generation of Zeliangrong people would have no future post solution of the Naga issue, thus, they joined hands with the NNPGs. However, isolated incidents of violence, like the recent one recorded on video, continue to occur.

It needs mention here that prior to the ZUF agreeing to join the peace talks in October 2019, the NSCN-IM and the ZUF activists had fought fiercely over setting up a camp near the Jalukie village, firing hundreds of rounds and razing settlements. The clashes have upset security establishments and peace in the region, and tensions continue between the two outfits over supremacy in the region.

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