NSCN (K-YA) Claims Responsibility for Killing Former Arunachal MLA

ITANAGAR:
The Yung Aung faction of banned militant outfit NSCN-K has claimed responsibility for the assassination of former legislator Yumsen Matey in Arunachal Pradesh earlier this month.

The former Congress lawmaker was shot dead by gunmen at Raho village in Tirap district along the India-Myanmar border on December 16.

A statement issued by the outfit on Thursday said Matey was killed due to his ”active involvement in anti-NSCN activities”.

”He was masterminding anti-NSCN propaganda in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh. He conspired against the NSCN/GPRN and allowed himself to be the tool of the adversaries,” the statement said.

”For the last few years, the NSCN/GPRN exercised maximum patience by overlooking his misdeeds as to avoid unwanted situation in the interest of the Naga people. However, despite warnings, he continued his illegal activities and went overboard to provoke and compelled the NSCN/GPRN to take this extreme step,” it added.

The outfit, however, added that ”this case is not in any way related to the upcoming Arunachal Pradesh state assembly election as some suspected because the NSCN/GPRN will never meddle in state politics”.

Matey, along with three of his supporters, had gone to the village for some personal work when someone took the former MLA towards a jungle on some pretext and shot him, killing him on the spot. Matey was elected as an MLA from Khonsa West assembly constituency on a Congress ticket in 2009. He joined the BJP in 2015 and earlier this year, declared his willingness to contest the assembly polls in 2024.

Before entering politics, he had served as a district adult education officer in Changlang district. The state government had on December 21 decided to transfer the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Subsequently, the state home department forwarded the case to the Ministry of Home Affairs for appropriate direction to the NIA in this matter.

Of the 239 insurgency-related fatalities in the state since March 2000, 183 have been reported in the Tirap-Changlang-Longding (TCL) region, according to official data.