Daily Times

GUWAHATI, India – The Indian security forces have killed at least six suspected armed separatist rebels in the country’s insurgency-hit northeastern state of Nagaland, police said on Friday.

Police said Indian armed forces killed the rebels from one faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland in Tuensang district, close to the Myanmar border. “This encounter took place in Tuensang district of the state and the six militants have been killed,” G Akheta Sema – Nagaland’s additional director general of police – told reporters. He said initial reports also showed a civilian casualty and injuries to several people, including a security man, adding that it was not yet clear whether the civilian casualty was fatal.

Earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a peace accord with the Isak-Muivah faction – the largest faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland – effectively ending the country’s oldest insurgency in the under-developed state of Nagaland that shares its border with Myanmar.

But the Khaplang faction, involved in Friday’s encounter, has opposed any truce with the Indian government. Indian intelligence officials say several militant groups including the NSCN-K – operating in India’s northeast – have their training camps in northern Myanmar’s thick jungles.