Kohima, Nov. 18: The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) today vowed to ?fight to the finish? if Delhi abrogated their four-year ceasefire agreement.

The Union home ministry is understood to be reconsidering the truce with the NSCN (K), citing repeated violation of the agreement by the militant group. The immediate provocation is the killing of former Nagaland director-general of police Hesso Mao.

An indignant NSCN (K) said the government had every right to do as it pleased, but that would certainly not be good for Nagaland. A.Z.Jami, the outfit?s kilonser (minister) for information and publicity, told The Telegraph over phone that his organisation was not scared of the prospect of the ceasefire agreement being discontinued.

?It is totally upto the government of India. We will fight till the last drop of blood of the Nagas is left,? said Jami, who was a senior member of the rival NSCN (Isak-Muivah) until last year.

The Naga Hoho, which is the apex organisation of the Naga tribes, expressed disappointment over the development. ?If the ceasefire agreement is broken on the basis of a single incident, it will be unfortunate. The consequences of this abrogation will not be good,? Naga Hoho vice-president Keviletuo Angami said.

Jami, too, said it was surprising that Delhi was thinking of abrogating its truce with the NSCN (K) after one incident ? Mao?s killing ? but was allegedly turning a blind eye to rampant violation of a similar agreement with the NSCN (I-M). ?I was there when the ground rules of the ceasefire with the NSCN (I-M) were framed. There has been rampant violation of these rules, to which the government of India has not been reacting at all.?

Another NSCN (K) leader, finance kilonser Kughalu Mulatonu, said news of Delhi?s strategy could actually be a rumour. ?The NSCN (I-M) has killed hundreds of innocents and yet the ceasefire is intact. So the government of India has no reason to abrogate the ceasefire (with us).?

The NSCN (K)-Delhi truce took effect in 2001, four years after the NSCN (I-M) signed an agreement with the government. The NSCN (I-M) has since taken the upper hand both in terms of visibility and area of influence, but the NSCN (K) still is a force to reckon with in the Nagaland districts bordering Myanmar. It has alliances with other outfits, including Ulfa, the People?s Liberation Army and the United National Liberation Front of Manipur. NSCN (K) chairman S.S.Khaplang lives in Myanmar and is said to even enjoy state protection.

The militant group?s opposition to the integration of all Naga-inhabited areas of the Northeast has distanced it not only from the NSCN (I-M), but also some Naga NGOs.

The NSCN (K) described Mao?s murder as ?capital punishment? for an incident that took place in 2000, when there was no ceasefire in place.