SS Khaplang, the chief of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) or NSCN-K, passed away on Friday, June 9, at Taka, Council Headquarters (CHQ), in Myanmar. He was 77.
The leader of the banned NSCN-K military outfit was having health issues for years and had not been active in his service to the organisation he had formed.
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We are yet to hear the details, including the exact cause of his death but sources said that his funeral may take place at Takka in Kachin region of Myanmar.
Born in 1940 at Waktham village in Myanmar, SS Khaplang floated Naga Defence Force in 1964 and went on to become the chairman of Eastern Naga Revolutionary Council the following year. Be belong to Hemi Naga tribe of Myanmar.
In 1980, he along with Thuingaleng Muivah, who left the Naga National Council (NNC) that started Nagas independence movement under the leadership of Angami Zapu Phizo in 1946 over disagreement with the infamous Shillong Accord 1975, formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) with an aim to free the Nagas from the Indian government.
However, the NSCN fell apart in 1988 over some disagreement between the founding members -- and that led to the creation of NSCN-K led by SS Khaplang, and NSCN-IM with late Isak Chishi Swu as the chairman and Thuingaleng Muivah as the general secretary.
Khaplang's group NSCN-K signed a ceasefire with the government of India in 2000 in the hope of settle the Naga issue that had been dragging for decades but was abrogation of ceasefire in April 2015. The aftermath of the fallout saw at least four bloody encounters between the faction and the Indian army, including the ambush on 6 Dogra Regiment Convoy in Chandel district of Manipur that killed 20 Army personnel. The Indian government then banned the faction and declared it a terrorist organisation.
The NSCN-K and the Narendra Modi government have refused to re-enter the ceasefire for peaceful dialogue to this day.
