New Delhi,  Senior leaders of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM), including T. Muivah, have arrived in the national capital to hold further talks with the Centre to resolve the decades-old Naga issue, government sources said on Wednesday.

 

The Naga leaders are likely to meet Home Ministry advisor and former Intelligence Bureau Special Director, Akshay Kumar Mishra, on Wednesday, and Additional Secretary, Northeast, in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Piyush Goyal on Thursday, a source said.

During the meetings, the Centre will try to convince the Naga leaders to drop their demand for a separate flag and Constitution on which they have been adamant, a senior government official said.

Both the Centre and the Naga leaders have indicated to be keen on resolving this long-pending issue by the end of this year in an amicable manner.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma, who is also chairman of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio have been actively involved in the resumption of the peace talks and taking them forward to logical conclusion.

They also met the Naga leaders, including Muivah, and persuaded to come on board for peace talks.

Soon after the transfer of Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi, who was appointed as the Centre's interlocutor for the Naga peace talks on August 29, 2014, to Tamil Nadu, the peace talks resumed on September 20 in Kohima when the Centre's representative Mishra met the Naga leaders and invited them to visit Delhi for further rounds of talks.

The NSCN-IM and other outfits entered into a ceasefire agreement with the Government of India in 1997 and over 80 rounds of negotiations have been held so far.

NSCN-IM and intelligence sources said that while many of the 31 demands of the Naga groups have been almost resolved during the talks with the Centre, differences remained over a separate flag and Constitution.