New Delhi: A deputy leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muiviah) faction was shot dead at his residence in Tizit town of Nagaland’s Mon district by unidentified people late on February 21. Inter-factional tension is suspected to have led to the killing.
As per news reports from Nagaland quoting Tizit Police, at least six assailants wearing masks broke into Khampei Opeiham Konyak’s house located in the town’s Industrial Ward at around 9 pm. First, members of his family were locked up. Then, he was dragged out of the house.
“The assailants shot Khampei from point blank range on his chest and left him outside the house before fleeing the scene. Soon after hearing the commotion, some neighbours rushed to the house, opened the doors,” The Nagaland Post quoted police’s preliminary inquiry as having said.
Khampei died on the way to the nearest primary health centre.
News reports said Tizit Police has filed a case and is investigating the murder. Tizit town is said to be tense but under control.
Khampei had joined the Isak-Muivah faction of the NSCN in October 2023. He had been a significant part of the NSCN (Khaplang) group located in Myanmar till July 2023, when a top leader of the Khaplang group, U Angmai, engineered a split from the outfit led by veteran Naga leader S.S. Khaplang’s nephew Yung Aung. U Angmai belongs to Myanmar’s Tangshang region.
Following the split, Khampei left the Khaplang group on health grounds and surrendered to the Assam Rifles at the Myanmar border, with arms, and entered Nagaland’s Mon district. He was one of several Naga leaders active in the Khaplang faction of NSCN which India had succeeded in bringing back to Nagaland after the death of S.S. Khaplang in 2017.
Three months later, Khampei, along with few others, joined the Isak-Muivah faction of the NSCN which had entered peace talks with the India government.
Soon after the split in July, the mother outfit of NSCN (K), in a press note, accused U Aangmai and his splinter group as “nothing but the proxy of the Indian intelligence to counter the NSCN/GPRN.”
Since then, factional fights between the two groups have involved armed confrontations and killings.
Khampei’s murder is also being seen by political observers in Nagaland as a suspected case of inter-fractional fight, though no one has claimed responsibility for it yet.
