The Niki Sumi faction of the extremist National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) said the Assam government’s proposed eviction drive in Golaghat district’s Uriamghat was designed to grab the ancestral lands of the Nagas.
Uriamghat is close to Assam’s border with Nagaland.
The faction said the areas targeted were “fictitiously” marked ‘disturbed area belt’ (DAB), citing pre-1947 demarcations by the British, who had transferred these areas for administrative convenience without consulting the Nagas.
The faction said successive Assam governments made “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants” settle down in the DAB with the alleged long-term plan to evict them and grab the lands of the Nagas.
“In the name of evicting the encroachers, the Assam government has double-crossed the Nagaland government by violating the terms and is occupying Naga ancestral areas by permanently stationing Assam police in the DAB,” it said in a statement.
