NNC president Thinoselie Keyho, veteran Naga leader, dies at 96

Thinoselie Keyho, president of the Naga National Council (NNC) and one of the last surviving leaders from the early decades of the Naga political movement, died at Oking Hospital in Kohima on Friday morning. He was 96.

He died at around 8 am after a prolonged illness, Eastern Mirror reported. Keyho is survived by his wife, three daughters and a grandchild.

From Chedema to the Naga Army

Keyho was born on May 11, 1930, at Chedema village in Kohima district. In 1956 he joined the Federal Government of Nagaland, the parallel government set up by the Naga underground, as secretary to the Director of Intelligence of the Naga Army.

He went on to rise through the ranks, serving as a brigadier and later as a lieutenant general in the Naga Army. During those years he led Naga contingents on missions to what was then East Pakistan and to China. One of these, a 132-member group, reached the Chinese frontier in January 1967.

Arrest, prison and public life

According to his biography, Keyho was taken into custody by the Indian Army in 1971, after the outbreak of the India-Pakistan war. He was held in Tihar Jail in Delhi and in Shillong Jail before being released in 1976.

After his release he turned to public and organisational work. He was president of the Angami Public Organisation from 1980 to 1984 and of the Naga National Workers' Conference from 1981 to 1990.

A decade at the helm of the NNC

Keyho was elected president of the NNC on his birthday, May 11, 2016, at a general meeting held in Yoruba village in Phek district. He led the organisation until his death.

The NNC, formed in 1946, is the oldest Naga political organisation and was for decades the main platform of the Naga demand for self-determination. Over the years it split into several factions, and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) emerged in 1980 from among those who rejected the 1975 Shillong Accord. Keyho's generation of leaders lived through all of these phases, from the armed movement of the 1950s and 1960s to the long ceasefire and peace talks of recent decades.

A link to an earlier era

With his death, Nagaland loses one of the few remaining figures who joined the movement in the 1950s and remained active in Naga public life into his nineties. Tributes from Naga organisations and political leaders are expected as details of the funeral are announced.

NEInsider will update this report with funeral arrangements and reactions when they are made public.