Kohima, Dec 4: The outlawed Naga underground group, NSCN (I-M), was on Friday night permitted to reopen its ceasefire monitoring office two days after it was closed by security forces following the abortive attempt on the life of Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir.The NSCN-IM, which had threatened to sever ties with the Centre perceived as a veiled threat to a two-year-old ceasefire if its office was not allowed to reopen was asked by the Assam Rifles to shift the cell from Dimapur town to a less populated area at Monglumukh, near a reserve forest in Dimapur district.The NSCN (I-M) monitoring office was closed on December one, two days after Jamir's convoy was ambushed on its way from Dimapur to Kohima leaving two policemen dead.The state government blames NSCN (I-M) for the attack, a charge firmly denied by the outlawed outfit.Earlier during the day, NSCN-IM information and publicity secretary Ng Hungshi in a statement threatened to sever all communication with the Centre if the closed monitoring office was not reopened immediately.Meanwhile, the ceasefire monitoring group chairman and additional secretary in the Union Home Ministry P D Shenoy told Phungthing, NSCN-IM ceasefire monitoring cell convenor, that the ceasefire had not been called off when the outfit had contacted him to know about the status of the ceasefire, the sources said.A senior Union Home Ministry official in Delhi reacted sharply to NSCN (I-M) threat to sever ties with the Centre and said the group would get a fitting reply if it broke the truce.Reiterating that NSCN-IM was in no way involved with the attempt on the life of Jamir, the outfit demanded an independent inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or any other agency into the incident.Meanwhile, in continuing violence in the North-East, tribal guerrillas shot dead a villager while a tribal youth was killed in a cross-fire between militants and security forces in Tripura last night.Police said here today that acting on a tip- off Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawans launched a search operation at Laxmichara areas under Baikhora police station in south Tripura.In the encounter the ultras opened fire on the security forces, who also retaliated. After half an hour the rebels managed to escape. Later, the T S R jawans recovered a body from the spot.In another incident, tribal guerillas shot dead a villager at Kanchanpur in north Tripura after raiding his house. Police launched a search operation to nab the militants.Another encounter between the T S R jawans and the militants took place at Ambasa in Dhalai district last night. No one was injured during the gunbattle.
