GUWAHATI, July 26: Indian negotiators and leaders of a powerful separatist group in remote northeast Nagaland are expected to hold fresh talks this week on extending a ceasefire aimed at ending nearly six decades of violence, according to a rebel leader.

“Talks are likely to take place on Friday in a (foreign) country whose name we cannot disclose at this moment,” Kraibo Chawang, a leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), told AFP.

“The two sides will discuss the issue of an extension of the ceasefire and nothing else at this moment,” Mr Chawang said by telephone from Dimapur in Nagaland. NSCN exiled leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah are expected to take part in the meeting with New Delhi’s chief peace interlocutor K. Padmanabhaiah.

The NSCN, one of the oldest and most powerful of about 30 rebel groups in India’s northeast, wants to create a Greater Nagaland out of Nagaland state by slicing off parts of neighbouring states that have Naga tribal populations. More than 25,000 people have lost lives to insurgency in Nagaland since India’s independence in 1947.