By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS
Guwahati : A frontline Naga separatist group Monday rejected charges that it had abducted 39 boys from the frontier state of Arunachal Pradesh in January, saying the youths had joined the outfit of their own volition following a “recruitment drive”.
Authorities in Arunachal Pradesh, bordering Myanmar and China’s Tibet region, had accused the National Socialist Council of Nagaland faction headed by S.S. Khaplang (NSCN-K) of forcibly taking away the youths from the state’s Tirap and Changlang districts, inducting them into the group and giving them arms training at their bases in Myanmar.
The 39 youths, according to the Arunachal Pradesh government, were “kidnapped” by the NSCN-K sometime in January and forcibly recruited by the Naga outfit. All the youths were either students or unemployed locals in the area.
Officials in Arunachal Pradesh said 15 of the youths had “escaped” from NSCN-K camps in Myanmar last week and have been re-united with their families. Some of the boys, reports said, were set free by the rebel group after their parents’ pleading.
The NSCN-K, however, said the youths had joined the group after it had launched a recruitment drive in January.
“These boys came and joined us voluntarily. Our recruitment campaign that began in January is still on,” K. Mulatonu, a senior NSCN-K leader, told IANS by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Mulatonu said all the new recruits are being screened by his group and the 15 boys who were said to have “escaped” were actually not found fit by his group and, therefore, allowed to leave and go home.
The matter has generated a lot of heat in Arunachal Pradesh with state Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu bringing it to the notice of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his recent visit to the state.
Even the influential All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union, the state’s apex student group, has accused the NSCN-K of abducting the youths.
Two cases have been lodged with the police in Arunachal Pradesh concerning the “abducted” youths.
The NSCN-K, fighting for a Naga homeland and currently on a ceasefire with the Indian government, has considerable presence and influence in Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh. The group’s headquarters is located across the border in Myanmar where it is said to have up to 5,000 cadres. The NSCN-K is currently operating a ceasefire with New Delhi since 2001 although no formal talks have taken place between the two sides.
“Our ceasefire is only restricted to Nagaland and hence there is no question of violating the truce as the recruitment drive is on in Arunachal Pradesh,” Mulatonu said.