Th Muivah, At Helm Of Talks With Centre On Naga Issue, Hospitalised

General secretary of the insurgent group NSCN(IM), Th Muivah, has been hospitalised in Dimapur, official sources informed late on Saturday night.

Nagaland health officials have neither denied nor confirmed the media report that the leader of the armed group tested positive for Covid-19 two days ago.

Th Muivah and other leaders of the insurgent group had come to Dimapur to attend a crucial meeting on the Naga political issue with the core committee of a parliamentary panel. The committee comprises all 60 MLAs and two MPs of Nagaland.

The NSCN-IM, the largest insurgent group in the northeast, has a ceasefire with the centre. It has held about 80 rounds of talks with the centre since August 1997 and Th Muivah has been leading the delegation.

A security official said that the 87-year-old was admitted to the Referral Hospital in Dimapur late on Saturday evening. He added that the NSCN-IM leader's condition is normal and his oxygen saturation level is around 93 per cent.

A large contingent of security personnel were on guard outside the private hospital in Dimapur, the second major city of Nagaland after state capital Kohima.

The central government has been separately holding the peace talks with NSCN-IM and eight other outfits that came together a few years ago under the banner of Naga National Political Groups.

Following a nearly year-long deadlock over the issue of a separate flag and constitution, the insurgent group said earlier this year that the Naga political talk teams are back on the table. It had then said the negotiations would continue under the 2015 agreement signed by the centre and NSCN(IM) to pave the way to a final solution to the Naga issue.