Media reports stated a third National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) faction, calling itself NSCN-Unification has emerged in Nagaland. The faction is reportedly led by a former NSCN-IM leader, Azheto Chophy. One of its leader claimed that the idea of breaking away from the NSCN-IM was not to create another problem but to solve the ones that were already there1.

The NSCN-IM meanwhile has on January 11 alleged that the union government was handling the Naga unification issue in an unbecoming way and using vested groups of a particular tribe to befool it. In a statement, the outfit expressed strong reservation against the move for Naga unification in the present form, and accused the union government of "surreptitiously playing the communal card by using the vested groups of a particular Naga tribe to befool it"2.

In other developments, on January 13, as many as seventeen persons, including six soldiers, were wounded in a grenade attack by suspected United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants in front of a police station near the Guwahati railway station3.

• 1. “New NSCN keeps forces guessing,” Telegraph, January 18, 2008, at http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080116/jsp/northeast/story_8786150.jsp
• 2. “IM points finger of accusation at Delhi, 'Unification group,” Imphal Free Press, January 13, 2008, http://e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=1..120108.jan08
• 3. “15 injured in blast,” The Hindu, January 14, 2008, at http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/14/stories/2008011457750100.htm