GUWAHATI: Indian government negotiators and rebels from the northeastern state of Nagaland indefinitely extended a ceasefire on Tuesday, a joint statement said. But the rebels, who have been fighting since 1947 to create a “Greater Nagaland,” urged New Delhi to come up with a solution to end the longest-running political feud since India's independence from Britain.
“Now it depends on New Delhi to come up with a mutually-acceptable solution or else the ceasefire could be abrogated immediately,” said V. Horam, a leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN).
The joint statement was issued at the venue of the talks in insurgency-wracked Nagaland state and follows 50 previous rounds of peace talks.
“After reviewing the status of the talks, it was decided to extend the ceasefire indefinitely,” it said.
“Both sides agreed to strengthen the ceasefire monitoring mechanism so that the ground situation remains conducive for continuance of the ceasefire,” an official quoting the document said.
The NSCN's fight to expand the mountainous Nagaland state in India’s remote northeast has claimed 25,000 lives in the past six decades.—AFP
