IED blast in Nagaland: NSCN vows to identify perpetrators of blast that killed Assam Rifles havildar

Representative image. | Photo credit: ANI

GUWAHATI

The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) said it would “make every effort by all available and appropriate means” to identify those responsible for the blast that killed a havildar of the Assam Rifles in Nagaland on Monday (July 13, 2026).

According to an official statement, a suspected Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast killed Havildar Mohammed Iqbal, who was posted at the Assam Rifles Training Center and School at Sukhov in Chümoukedima district. He hailed from Kallar Mohra village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.

The NSCN, also known as the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Nagaland Council, condemned the “cowardly terrorist act of planting and detonating” an IED that killed an Indian soldier and injured four others.

“Such indiscriminate acts of violence serve no other legitimate purpose than to spread fear, create chaos and undermine the peaceful atmosphere that people have long desired and strived to preserve,” the organization, which has been under a ceasefire since 1997, said on Tuesday (July 14, 2026).

She said the NSCN, as a signatory to the Geneva Call for a Binding Declaration Banning Anti-Personnel Landmines, rejects the use of weapons such as IEDs. The group also said it remains bound by the “Indo-Naga ceasefire agreement and will continue to honor the letter and spirit of the basic rules of the ceasefire”.

The NSCN, based in Camp Hebron near Dimapur, vowed to use its resources to “find out the truth” behind the blast and identify the perpetrators as these people “must be exposed and held accountable”.

Raising questions

Former Nagaland minister Mmhonlumo Kikon, who quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2025, said the reported IED blast raised questions that could not be ignored.

“An explosives incident near a military training facility naturally raises concerns about security preparedness and intelligence gathering. The public deserves clarity on how this happened and whether existing precautions were adequate,” he said.

“Peace in Nagaland is too rare to take for granted. Any such incident must be urgently investigated, not only to establish the facts, but also to ensure that it does not become a harbinger of a more troubling security situation,” he added.

Published – 14 Jul 2026 14:23 IST