Dimapur, September 26: The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) has strongly condemned the Government of India’s decision to declare the outfit an “unlawful organization” and impose a five-year ban, branding the move as a “declaration of war” and a direct assault on Naga sovereignty.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Information and Publicity (MIP) of the Government of the People’s Republic of Nagaland (GPRN), the NSCN-K leadership—Maj Gen (Retd.) Ang Mai, Nyeiton Konyak, and Kughalu Mulatonu—accused New Delhi of distorting history and using repressive laws to subjugate the Naga people.

Calling the ban an “illegal order,” the outfit said it validates the Naga people’s “birthright of sovereignty,” which it claimed predates India’s existence as a nation. The group emphasized that the Nagas had no political or historical boundaries with India prior to 1963 and 1972, asserting that traditional Naga frontiers stretched to Southern Tibet in the north, the Kachins in the east, the Ahoms in the west, and the Meiteis and Chins in the south.

The statement also criticized India’s extension of the McMahon Line in 1972 without the participation of China and the Nagas, describing it as a root cause of ongoing political conflict.

Rejecting India’s constitutional framework, the NSCN-K denounced the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (1957), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (1967), TADA, the Disturbed Area Act, and the National Security Act, describing them as “anti-human” laws used to enforce “apolitical propaganda” on the Naga people.

“No political, historical, social, religious or economic relations have ever existed between India and the Nagas since the birth of the Indus Civilisation or independent India in 1947,” the group declared. “Unlike India, the Nagas and Nagaland were never part of India or British India, are never part of India, and will never be. Sovereignty is our birthright, inheritance from God and our fathers.”

The NSCN(K) maintained that its struggle is not aimed at undermining Indian sovereignty but at “retaining and protecting Naga sovereignty.” It insisted that the outfit has never encroached upon Indian territory, instead accusing the Indian Army and government of “forcefully and illegally occupying and killing the Nagas in the name of law and order while the real intent is Indianisation.”

Calling the ban “a declaration of war,” the outfit said the continued presence of “millions of Indian armed forces” in Naga areas constitutes “the greatest military crime of this generation.” It warned that the Naga people “will not remain mute spectators” unless Indian troops are withdrawn, urging New Delhi to initiate dialogue for a political settlement.

“The Government of India must immediately reverse the illegal order and educate its armed forces to reciprocate through political course and arrive at peaceful political solutions,” the statement said.

The NSCN-K also rejected allegations of receiving external funding or possessing heavy weapons, dismissing such claims as “cheap propaganda of the stone age era.” The outfit maintained that it only collects “legal taxes” within “Naga country” and that the Naga Army holds only light weapons for self-defence. “The Naga Army does not possess any heavy weapons, biological or nuclear weapons,” it asserted.

Accusing India of being “the sole aggressor, occupier and criminal in the Naga country,” the group provocatively suggested that “Indian Security Forces and its agents should be declared ‘unlawful and terrorist organisations’ and not the NSCN(K).”

The statement further reaffirmed the group’s commitment to alliances with other insurgent groups in Northeast India, calling such cooperation “a bounden duty and a legacy of more than five decades.”