‘Solution to be based on FA’

KOHIMA, Apr 24
The Centre's Interlocutor Akshaya Kumar Mishra on Saturday held a third round of talks with NSCN-IM and assured it that the final solution to the vexed Naga political issue will be based on the Framework Agreement of 2015.
The assurance was given by Mishra to the outfit's general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah, who led a 29-member team, during a closed door meeting at Chumukedima Police Complex, NSCN-IM 'home kilonser' (minister) M Daniel Lotha told PTI here.
Asked if any major decision was taken, he said "The talks for a final solution will continue between NSCN-IM and the Government of India based on the Framework Agreement". A fourth round of negotiations will be held between Mishra and Muivah at the same venue on Monday, he added.
The Interlocutor also met a delegation of the Naga Hoho (apex body of Naga tribal bodies) during the day and assured them that the final solution to the vexed political issue will be "honourable and acceptable to all the Nagas", a release by the body's media cell said.
The Naga Hoho has members from Arunachal, Assam, Manipur besides Nagaland. The six-member Naga Hoho team at the meeting, held at the Chumoukedima police station, was led by its president HK Zhimomi and general K Elu Ndang.
Officials said that Mishra is likely to meet the State Government's core committee on Naga Political Issue headed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and also Naga civil societies on Sunday.
The former Director of Intelligence Bureau has been in Nagaland since April 18 to take forward the negotiation with different groups and find a permanent solution to the decades old Naga political struggle, which is considered the longest insurgency movement in the north east.
The meeting between Mishra and Muivah on Saturday was the third within a week. On Friday, the Interlocutor had met 11 leaders of the NSCN-IM led by Muivah, its principal negotiator and held a closed door meeting at Camp Hebron, the headquarters of the outfit, on April 19. The parleys at Hebron was the first such inside the Naga outfit's headquarters.
Mishra, who is on his second visit to the North Eastern State, had held separate talks with the working committee of Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) on Thursday had assured them that the Naga solution would be based on the Agreed Position signed between them and the Centre on November 17, 2017.
The Centre has been holding separate talks with NSCN-IM since 1997 and the NNPGs from 2017. It signed the Framework Agreement with NSCN-IM on August 3, 2015 and an Agreed Position with WC NNPG on November 17, 2017.
However, no final solution has been achieved till date as NSCN-IM remained firm on its demand for a separate flag and Constitution for the Nagas.  PTI