NSCN (IM) chief Muivah returns residence to Manipur after six many years

UKHRUL/SOMDAL:

Six many years after becoming a member of the Naga freedom motion, Nationwide Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) normal secretary Thuingaleng Muivah flew to his native village of Somdal within the Naga-dominated Ukhrul district of Manipur on Wednesday (October 22, 2025).

Feelings ran excessive when their helicopter landed at a makeshift helipad simply earlier than 4pm, as virtually the whole village of round 4,500 folks turned out to greet the frail 91-year-old chief they confer with as Avakharar, which within the Tangkhul language means “eldest father”. The helipad became a sea of ​​blue – contrasting with the inexperienced hills past – as folks of their conventional apparel waved the “Naga nationwide flag” as he disembarked.

Somdal was the second cease of the chief of the NSCN, often known as NSCN (Isak-Muivah) or NSCN (IM), to tell apart the armed group from the NSCN (Khaplang) or NSCN (Okay) and its many factions.

Hundreds of individuals lined the streets of Ukhrul, the district headquarters about 25 km from Somdal, when their helicopter landed on the metropolis’s Bakshi Floor after taking off from close to Dimapur in neighboring Nagaland, the place the NSCN (IM) is headquartered. He was attended by members of his group and his safety guards at an occasion at Tangkhul Naga Lengthy camp (prime neighborhood group), the place a program was organized in his honor.

“I’ve no phrases to elucidate how we really feel and what his return residence after 61 years means,” mentioned 84-year-old Asui Muivah, the one surviving brother of the NSCN (IM) chief. Their sister and two older brothers handed away years in the past.

All through the Tangkhul area, Mr. Muivah’s homecoming had extra significance. He was the primary “prime minister” of India to go to Ukhrul, on the border with Myanmar. He’s the Ato Kilonser (Prime Minister) within the Authorities of the Individuals’s Republic of Nagalim, a place he rose to after becoming a member of the armed motion for a sovereign Naga homeland in 1964.

‘Free existence’

Muivah was unable to deal with the assembly in each places as a result of he was not in the most effective of well being. His speech was learn by VS Atem, one other NSCN (IM) chief.

“I thank the Lord God Almighty for preserving me and making it potential for me to return immediately to my hometown, Somdal. However many individuals I knew and who cherished me are lacking. The technology comes and goes, however the nation stays. The difficulty we struggle for is larger and older than most of us who’re gathered right here immediately on this floor of Tangkhul Naga Lengthy,” mentioned the nonagenarian.

Addressing the Naga political subject, he mentioned the “historic nationwide resolution for a sovereign Nagalim” was defended and consolidated from the battlefield to the negotiating desk. “We don’t resign the free existence and sovereignty of Nagalim and we are going to defend the sovereign nationwide selections of Nagalim to the top, come what might,” Muivah mentioned.

He’ll keep in a specifically designed Gethsemane Prayer Corridor, 2.5 km from his ancestral residence, together with his spouse Pakahao Muivah, till October 28. He’s scheduled to go away for Senapati, one other Naga-majority district in Manipur, on October 29 for one more welcome occasion earlier than returning to Nagaland.

The NSCN was shaped in 1980, however cut up into the NSCN (IM) and NSCN (Okay) in 1988. After years of combating towards the Indian armed forces, the NSCN (IM) declared a truce in 1977.

Muivah’s need to go to Somdal virtually got here true when the Heart allowed his journey in Might 2010. His convoy was detained close to the Nagaland-Manipur border, round 120 km from his village, when the Manipur Congress authorities, then led by Okram Ibobi Singh, objected to his go to because of the NSCN’s (IM) “Better Nagalim” demand.

Better Nagalim was then the armed group’s idea of an unbiased homeland, encompassing all of the Naga-inhabited areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Myanmar. The federal government of Manipur and social organizations within the Meitei-majority Imphal Valley noticed this idea as a risk to the territorial integrity of the state.

Amongst those that attended Mr. Muivah’s welcome occasion in Ukhrul had been leaders of Imphal Valley-based organizations – Manipur Integrity Coordinating Committee, Group of All United Golf equipment of Manipur and Federation of Civil Society Organizations – and elders of Pangal (Meitei Muslim). This underlined the acceptance of Mr Muivah’s return residence.