New Delhi: India has asked Myanmar to hand over four top leaders of Naga outfit NSCN-K, including its chief S S Khaplang, holding them responsible for killing of 18 army soldiers in Manipur on June 4.
Besides Khaplang, India sought the custody of Niki Sumi, Kirichu and Asang, who were believed to have planned and supervised the attack in Manipur’s Chandel district.
The request was placed during the meeting of India- Myanmar Joint Consultative Committee held here last month, government sources said.
The Indian delegation told the Myanmar team that the four had hatched the conspiracy to attack the Indian soldiers and directly supervised the execution of the plan.
The sources said the Myanmar delegation, however, remained non-committal over India’s request to hand over the NSCN-K leaders.
Khaplang, a Naga from Myanmar, was reportedly undergoing treatment at a hospital in Yangon on the day of the attack.
However, later he shifted to his base in Taga, located along the Sino-Myanmar border. The other three NSCN-K leaders are also believed to be in Myanmar and they shuttle between Taga and the outfit’s other camps. Days after the attack, Indian Army commandos carried out an attack on NSCN-K camps along the border with Myanmar.
Meanwhile, a key leader of NSCN-K has been arrested in south Delhi’s Lodhi Road area, where he was meeting an associate, police said on Tuesday.
Panmei, 50, who belongs to Peren district of Nagaland, was arrested from the India Habitat Centre building in Lodhi Road late on Monday, a senior police officer said.
He claims to be a member of the so-called ‘government-in-exile’ established by the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland unit led by SS Khaplang.
The NSCN (Khaplang), a breakaway faction of the NSCN (IM) had breached truce with the Central Government to attack killed 20 Army men in Manipur on June 4. The fraction is not a signatory to the recent Naga peace treaty.