The United Naga Tribes Association of Border Areas on Monday said it was appalled by Nagaland MLA Mhathung Yanthan’s appeal to the villagers in the border areas to maintain peace.

Yanthan, adviser to the border affairs department, had made the request during his recent visit to Indisen and Rilan villages along the Assam-Nagaland boundary.

In a release, the association’s chairman Hukavi T. Yeputhomi and general secretary Imsumongba Pongen said the Nagaland government, as a plaintiff in a civil suit filed in the Supreme Court by the Assam government, has been consistently insisting that 4,974.16 square miles (or 12,883.07 square kilometres) are still lying under the “illegal occupation” of Assam.

As such, it said, “It is very unfortunate for the adviser to the border affairs to say that the villagers should maintain peace and tranquillity instead of insisting on the Naga people’s rights over their land.”

The association pointed out that Nagaland, the 16th state under the Union of India, is the only one that has no clear-cut boundary demarcation till date in the country.

It said starting from the chief ministership of P. Shilu Ao in the sixties and Dr Hokshe Sema in the seventies, the state government had initiated appropriate steps, demanding implementation of the 16th Point Agreement (points 12 and 13) which resulted in the formation of Sundaram Commission. It said the commission submitted its findings in 1971, based on which an Interim Agreement between the governments of Nagaland and Assam was signed in 1973.

The association said the basic idea of this agreement was to identify the historical, geographical and political rights of the Naga people. In accordance with this, the central and Assam governments had agreed that Nagaland does not have a definite boundary demarcation till date which prompted Dispur to file a civil suit against the Union home ministry, the Election Commission and the Nagaland government in the Supreme Court in 1988.

“This means the boundary issue between Assam and Nagaland is sub judice,” it added.

On the recent happenings in and around Indisen and Rilan villages, the association alleged the Assam forest department had been trying to erect reserved forests posts without inviting the Nagaland forest department. “Any pillar or post that may be erected by Assam’s forest department can never be the boundary line between the two states until and unless the government of Assam implements the Interim Agreement of 1973 and 1979,” it said.

The association strongly urged the Nagaland government to check its perspective and be consistent on the rights of the Naga people over their land.