Dimapur, March 30: At least 15 senior Lotha citizens of Wokha, who had tried to help host the abortive Naga reconciliation meet in the district on February 18, were arrested in police raids last night and this morning. The elders have been lodged in the district jail.

The Naga National Council (NNC), which had organised the meet, today said the arrests were carried out by police under direct instruction from the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) under chief minister Neiphiu Rio.

The NNC’s Lotha region swiftly condemned the arrests and accused Rio of misusing the state machinery for terrorising Naga national workers and Lotha civilians.

The NNC also urged the civil society, including non-governmental organisations, to protest against the DAN government for such violation of human rights.

Tension is escalating in the entire Wokha district following the arrests. Several NNC activists and youths are organising secret meetings, threatening to respond with force if the arrested persons are tortured in prison. They demanded that the arrested elders be immediately released and those behind the arrests apologise to the Lotha community.

C. Lotha, secretary of the information and publicity wing of the NNC’s Lotha region, said the elders should not have been arrested as they were not organisers of the Wokha meet.

Angered by persistent allegations that he had sabotaged the Wokha meet, Rio had warned that government “pensioners” who had tried to organise the Wokha meet would be arrested.

“For the first time in the history of the Naga movement, old non-combatants, who were simply inspired by their faith in the Naga reconciliation movement and tried to help host the Naga reconciliation movement, were humiliated and put in Wokha Central Jail. This is an insult to the Naga people and the Lothas in particular,” said the NNC in a statement issued after the arrests.

The NNC warned that such a violent step “would be recorded in the history of Nagas. Let the Naga people know this gentleman,” said the NNC referring to Rio, observing that through this step the chief minister had revealed his “anti-Naga” mentality.

In yet another statement from its central office, the Naga National Council’s Panger faction today vowed never to forgive chief minister Neiphiu Rio for first sabotaging the Naga reconciliation effort at Wokha and later lying blatantly to the media that he had nothing to do with its sabotage.

The NNC, in a tough statement today, said Rio was trying to pass the blame for the Wokha sabotage on to the Lothas, which was not the case.

The NNC clarified that the Lotha people were not the ones who planned the February 18 reconciliation meet and asked Rio not to blame them. “The Lotha people of Wokha were only involved in hosting the meet,” the NNC said.

“The fact that Section 144 was imposed by the state government to block the meet was evidence enough of the DAN government’s hand in the sabotage,” the NNC said.

The NNC also accused Lotha Hoho chairman Nyanbemo Ngullie of lying to the people of Nagaland by claiming that foreigners were involved in the attempts to host the meet.