12 killed as separatists clash in India's Nagaland

May 16, 2008, 9:34 GMT

New Delhi - At least 12 cadres from a separatist group were killed in a clash in India's north-eastern state of Nagaland on Friday, a news report said.

Police told the PTI news agency that the fatalities resulted when rival groups of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) traded gunfire on the outskirts of Dimapur city, some 60 kilometres north-west of state capital Kohima.

The cadres from the GPRN Unification faction were killed after they attacked a camp belonging to the rival Isak-Muivah group, the report said.

The NSCN, which has been fighting for an independent Naga homeland, split into two factions in 1998.

In December 2007, a large number of members defected from the Isak-Muivah group to join hands with the Khaplang group and identified themselves as the GPRN Unification group.

Both the Khaplang and Isak-Muivah groups have signed cease-fire agreements and are holding negotiations with the Indian government but are engaged in a conflict with one another over territorial supremacy. More than 250 cadres have been killed over the past six years.

The insurgency in the Christian-majority Nagaland, which border Myanmar, is one of India's oldest. More than 20,000 people have been killed in the violent separatist movement in the state since India's independence from British rule in 1947.