Kohima, May 06: In a snub to Manipur government’s ban on his visit, a defiant NSCN-IM leader T Muivah on Wednesday arrived at the state’s frontiers from where he is set to embark on a journey to his birthplace where prohibitory orders have been clamped and security heightened to avoid tribal unrest.
75-year-old Muivah reached Viswema village near the Nagaland-Manipur border on his way to his home village of Somdal in Ukhrul district in the neighbouring state.
Escorted by members of Naga civil society, Muivah left the NSCN-IM headquarters Camp Hebron near Dimapur at noon after a brief prayer and arrived here to a warm welcome at the check gate on NH-39. He was then escorted to Viswema village, 25 km south of this capital town.
Muivah would stay overnight at Viswema near the Mao gate on the inter-state border from where he would go to Somdal tomorrow, said Naga Hoho leaders, who are coordinating his entourage.
The timing of his departure for Ukhrul was not disclosed for security reasons.
Nagaland Police have provided Muivah with a bullet proof vehicle while security forces were deployed on the national highway, a senior Nagaland Police officer said.
At least 50 vehicles, mostly occupied by members of Naga NGOs, including women, escorted Muivah to Viswema.
In a hurriedly convened press briefing at the NSCN-IM headquarters last night, Muivah said he would go ahead with his planned visit to his village which was agreed upon by the Centre.
“I must go there and no force can stop me. My parents died waiting to meet their son,” Muivah said.
He said he failed to understand why Manipur was objecting to his visit, adding “such move is not necessary as the visit is for peace, to meet family and friends and not to disturb anyone.”
The Manipur government has stepped up security measures and clamped prohibitory orders on the other side of the Mao inter-state gate to thwart the entry of the Naga leader into the state fearing breach of communal harmony.
“The opposition to my visit came as a surprise…the visit is for peace, to meet family and friends and not to disturb anyone…We will not claim anything which belongs to the Meiteis (an ethnic group), let them have theirs, we will only have what is rightfully ours,” he said.
NSCN-IM, one of the oldest and powerful rebel groups in the northeast, is demanding a ‘greater Nagaland’ which it proposed to be formed by merging Naga populated areas of adjoining states, which has been rejected by Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
–PTI