The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) has strongly condemned the Government of India’s decision to declare the outfit an “unlawful organization” and impose a five-year ban, calling the move a “declaration of war” and an attempt to erase Naga sovereignty.

In a sharply worded statement issued by the ministry of information and publicity (MIP) of the Government of the People’s Republic of Nagaland (GPRN), the NSCN-K, led by Maj Gen (Retd.) Ang Mai, Nyeiton Konyak and Kughalu Mulatonu, accused New Delhi of distorting history and using repressive laws to subjugate the Naga people.

The outfit described the ban as an “illegal order” and claimed it only validates the Naga people’s “birthright of sovereignty,” which it said predates India’s existence as a nation.

“The Nagas have never had political or historical boundaries with India prior to 1963 and 1972,” the statement asserted, adding that traditional Naga frontiers historically extended to Southern Tibet in the north, the Kachins in the east, the Ahoms in the west, and the Meiteis and Chins in the south. It accused the Indian government of arbitrarily extending the McMahon Line in 1972 “without the participation of China and the Nagas,” calling it a key source of political conflict.

Rejecting India’s constitutional framework, the NSCN(K) denounced laws such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1957, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967, TADA, the Disturbed Area Act, and the National Security Act, describing them as “anti-human” tools to impose “apolitical propaganda” on the Naga people.

“No political, historical, social, religious or economic relations have ever existed between India and the Nagas since the birth of the Indus Civilisation or independent India in 1947,” the group declared. “Unlike India, the Nagas and Nagaland were never part of India or British India, are never part of India, and will never be. Sovereignty is our birthright, inheritance from God and our fathers.”

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The statement maintained that the NSCN(K)’s struggle is not aimed at “jeopardising or breaking Indian sovereignty,” but at “retaining and protecting Naga sovereignty,” insisting that the group has “never transgressed, occupied or violated an inch of Indian soil to launch a war.” Instead, it accused the Indian Army and government of “forcefully and illegally occupying and killing the Nagas in the name of law and order while the real intent is Indianisation.”

Calling the ban “a declaration of war,” the NSCN-K warned that the continued presence of “millions of Indian armed forces” in Naga areas constitutes “the greatest military crime of this generation.”

It cautioned that the Naga people “will not remain mute spectators” unless Indian troops are withdrawn and demanded that New Delhi “sit and talk” with the group to reach a political settlement. “The Government of India must immediately reverse the illegal order and educate its armed forces to reciprocate through political course and arrive at peaceful political solutions,” it said.

The statement also rejected allegations that the NSCN(K) receives external funding or possesses heavy weapons, calling such claims “cheap propaganda of the stone age era.” It maintained that the group collects “legal taxes” within “Naga country” and holds only light weapons for self-defence. “The Naga Army does not possess any heavy weapons, biological or nuclear weapons,” it said.

Accusing India of being “the sole aggressor, occupier and criminal in the Naga country,” the NSCN(K) provocatively suggested that “Indian Security Forces and its agents should be declared ‘unlawful and terrorist organisations’ and not the NSCN(K).”

It also signaled its intent to continue forming alliances with other Northeast insurgent groups, calling it “a bounden duty and a legacy of more than five decades.”