Kisama (Kohima), Oct. 6: Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio has used a harvesting festival as an occasion to deliver messages of peace and brotherhood among different Naga tribes.

The Khiamniungan and Pochuri tribes celebrated the festival at this tourist-interest village together yesterday.

Rio, who took part in the celebrations along with his cabinet colleagues, said the Nagas were a single family and peace had to be maintained among different tribes.

Minister P. Longon, parliamentary secretary Yitachu and legislator Heno also spoke on similar lines. All of them asked the people to celebrate more such festivals in the spirit of brotherhood among the Naga tribes.

The Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government has been reiterating time and again that it favours integration of Naga contiguous areas, a demand that is in line with that of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah).

?Nagas are a single family, but were partitioned into different tribes with their own individuality,? Rio told a large gathering. More than 2,000 people braved heavy rains to attend Tsokum festival of the Khiamniungans and Yemshe festival of the Pochuris.

Two minutes? silence was observed in the meeting in memory of those killed in the October 2 blasts in Dimapur.

The Khiamniungans dominate parts of Tuensang district while the Pochuris live in neighbouring Meluri area of Phek district. Longon and Yitachu, both young legislators in the Rio government, have been participating in the festivals for some years.

In a unique ancient ritual of the tribes, a cow was slaughtered in full public glare after the meeting held on the occasion.

An elder first made a stroke of the machete on the legs of the animal and then on the spine before hitting its stomach and the head to sacrifice. ?After you die also, we will continue to rear cattle as grazing fields are in plenty,? an interpreter said even as an elder put tree leaves on the cow.

The sacrifice was meant to propitiate the gods ? before the advent of Christianity to Nagaland ? to ensure bumper harvests every year. A grand feast was arranged later jointly by both the tribes.