Kohima, July 1: There is widespread cheer among the people of Nagaland since the 9 India Reserve Battalion (IRB) is returning home from Chhattisgarh by the end of this month. It has served in the Naxalite-infested state for more than three years.
But it might be a little too early to rejoice since the Centre is now planning to send a Naga IRB to Jammu and Kashmir, it has been reliably learnt.
The Neiphiu Rio government had finally decided to recall the Naga jawans earlier this year, following intense public pressure.
But government sources said the 10 India Reserve Battalion would soon be deployed in another hotspot, Jammu & Kashmir.
The Centre’s decision to deploy a Naga IRB in Jammu and Kashmir was mainly because of the personnel’s valour and capability to engage in guerrilla warfare.
With this latest proposal from Delhi, the state government is likely to face another chorus of protests from the relatives of Naga IRB personnel and local NGOs. Another round of agitations is also in the offing.
Relatives of the 9 IRB personnel have been protesting deployment of the Naga battalion in Chhattisgarh and want the government to withdraw the battalion.
So far, the battalion has lost over 40 Naga jawans in Chhattisgarh. Many others have deserted it, unable to cope with the stress situations there.
An appeal was also issued today to all Naga frontal organisations and the public in general to persuade the government of Nagaland to withdraw the battalion.
The call was issued after a team of journalists, social workers and educationists claimed here that unimaginable atrocities were being perpetrated on the people of Chhattisgarh in the name of flushing out Maoists.
The solidarity group comprises Amit Bhattacharya, the head of the department of history of Jadavpur University, Calcutta, Abhishek Srivastava, a freelance journalist from New Delhi, G.N. Saibaba, a functionary of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (an NGO), Prosun Chatterjee, an activist of the Gana Pratirodh Manch of West Bengal, Rona Wilson, a research scholar of Jawaharlal Nehru University and Swapan Dasgupta of Radical Publications.
The members of the group have met representatives of several Naga NGOs and human rights groups in the past three days.
