UKHRUL, India (AP) — A helicopter descended from the clear blue sky Wednesday as thousands of people cheered the arrival of Thuingaleng Muivah, a top Naga insurgent leader, to his hometown in India’s northeastern Manipur state for the first time in five decades.
Men and women in traditional Naga attire carrying spears and wearing feathered headgear welcomed the 91-year-old Muivah in Manipur’s Ukhrul district. Schoolchildren waved the Naga flag, which has a blue background with a rainbow across the center and a white star in the top left corner.
The Naga insurgency began in the 1950s as a fight for independence. Violence has waned since a 1997 ceasefire between India and Muivah’s group, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), but talks remain stalled over demands for a separate flag and constitution.
Muivah is currently leading peace talks with India’s federal government, seeking greater political rights for the Naga people, an Indigenous group spread across several northeastern Indian states.
Muivah left his home in 1964 to join the Naga independence movement, making only one brief return visit to his home state in 1973. His last attempt to visit his hometown in 2010 was met with a ban on his entry by the Manipur state government and triggered large-scale deadly protests.
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By ANUPAM NATH
