The Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) is consolidating itself, taking advantage of the ongoing ceasefire agreement with the Centre, according to a top official of the Assam Rifles.
"The ceasefire is giving the NSCN an opportunity to consolidate. We have conveyed our concern to the Ministry of Home Affairs," Inspector General of Assam Rifles (North), Major General SS Kumar told a team of visiting newsmen in Kohima.
Observing that the NSCN (IM) was procuring arms and improved communication systems, Kumar said the number of its cadre have also been on the rise lately.
"Earlier, there were about 800 cadre of the NSCN-IM. Of late, the figure ranges between 2,000 to 2,500," he said, adding the NSCN (IM) had a training camp in neighbouring Myanmar and reports about the existence of another camp in Bangladesh were being looked into.
Kumar said the outfit was trying to run a parallel government in Nagaland. "It has a political wing, a military wing, collects 'taxes', issues entry permits, registers shops and carries out investigations into crimes and irregularities in the state government," he said.
The NSCN (Khaplang), another NSCN faction, however, has no ceasefire agreement either with the government or with NSCN (IM) and this has resulted in factional clashes in the past two years. While NSCN (K) tries to push NSCN (IM) towards Dimapur, the latter attempts to push the former towards Myanmar, said IG of Assam Rifles, the main counter-insurgency agency in the northeast.