Officials claimed on Thursday that a local leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) “Ao Region” was arrested for mailing a letter threatening villagers in Nagaland’s Alongtaki constituency not to vote for the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chairman Temjen Imna Along.
Authorities asserted that NSCN-Lanuwati IM’s Jamir issued the letter circulating on social media, which urged all villages in the constituency not to vote for Along due to his “anti-Naga nature” and threatened “severe action” against “defaulters.”
The letter states, “In 2022 in Amsterdam, the Government of India acknowledged the distinctiveness of Naga history, but Mr. Temjen Imna Along said unequivocally in the Nagaland Parliament that Nagas are Indians.”
Along, the state minister for higher education and tribal affairs, is running against the Janata Dal-United candidate in the Alongtaki assembly constituency on February 27.
When contacted, a member of the NSCN (IM) steering committee stated that the organization’s leadership did not issue or authorise Jamir’s command. Some state-level BJP leaders declined to comment on the issue.
