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Rebels take soldiers hostage in India

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-09 17:10

GUWAHATI, India - Tribal rebels in India's troubled northeast kidnapped an army officer and five soldiers, saying they were angry that government forces were encouraging rival groups despite a ceasefire, officials said on Friday.

The soldiers were on a routine foot patrol in the mountains of Nagaland late on Thursday when they were captured by separatist rebels of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) (NSCN-IM).

The group is among the strongest of dozens of militant organisations fighting Indian rule in the state. The insurgencies have killed thousands of people over the last half century.

"Efforts are on to secure their release with the help of village elders," Lieutenant Colonel Nirupam Bhargav said in Kohima, the capital of Nagaland.

The kidnappers said New Delhi was encouraging rival groups to attack them and sabotage a decade-old peace process aimed at ending the longest-running insurgency in the region.

Nagaland is a mainly Christian state of two million people on India's far northeast border with Myanmar.