N-E militant outfit has an ‘Indian’ chief

GUWAHATI: THE TRANSITION OF UNLFW’S LEADERSHIP FROM A BURMESE HEMI NAGA TO AN ‘INDIAN’ NAGA BELONGING TO THE KONYAK TRIBE IS SOMETHING ONE SHOULD TAKE NOTE OF

A Myanmar-based umbrella organisation of several Northeast extremist (N-E) groups now has an ‘Indian’ chairman.

The election of Khango Konyak, the chairman of National Socialist Council of NagalandKhaplang (NSCN-K), as the chief of United National Liberation Front of West South East Asia (UNLFW) was inevitable.

But what could be of interest for Indian intelligence agencies is the transition of UNLFW’s leadership from a Burmese Hemi Naga – Shangwang Shangyung Khaplang, who died on June 9 this year – to an ‘Indian’ Naga belonging to the Konyak tribe.

Konyak belongs to Mon district of Nagaland bordering Myanmar. Like many of his community, he does not consider himself an Indian.

One of the oldest aides of Khaplang, Konyak was elected vicechairman of NSCN-K in May 2011. It was around the same time that the seeds of UNLFW were sown in a meeting at NSCN-K’s headquarters at Taka in Sagaing division of Myanmar.

Apart from Khaplang and Konyak, leaders of three insurgent outfits of the region – United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent and Manipur’s United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – had attended that meeting.

Khaplang, by virtue of being the patron of most militant outfits who used NSCN-K facilities to train and lie low in after subservice strikes in India, was the automatic choice as chairman of UNLFW when it was formed on April 17, 2015.

UNLFW was formed because the rebel outfits realised they have a better chance against India armed forces together instead of operating individually.