NSCN (Yung Aung) has claimed responsibility for the killing of Yumsen Matey, former MLA of Khonsa West, Arunachal Pradesh, on December 16, 2023. The group through its MIP stated that Yumsen Matey was “awarded capital punishment” due to his “active involvement in all sorts of anti-NSCN activities.”
According to MIP, he was “found guilty of masterminding anti-NSCN propagandas and slogans” in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh. Alleging that he “conspired against the NSCN/GPRN” and allowed himself to be the “tool of the adversaries,” MIP said: “This act is no less than treason to his own people and to the ongoing Naga national struggle.”
Further, MIP claimed that the group, for the last few years, exercised “maximum patience” by overlooking his misdeeds in order to avoid “unwanted situation” in the interest of the Naga public. However, MIP claimed that despite heavy warnings, he continued “his illegal activities and went overboard to provoke and compelled the NSCN/GPRN to take this extreme step”.
MIP maintained that the case was “not in any way related to the upcoming Arunachal State assembly election “as some suspected”, adding that the group would “never meddle in a petty Indian state politics.”
MIP asserted that “such individuals with anti-Naga characters” cannot be tolerated and would not be spared even in the days to come. It also sternly warned “all his accomplices to desist from anti-NSCN activities or faced the same fate.”