The Khango Konyak-led faction of the Naga nationalist group Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Khaplang) on Tuesday said it is willing to resume a ceasefire with the government of India and restart peace negotiations, reports said. The group said this was in response to an appeal by the government of India, the state government and the Naga people.

Naga rebel groups have been fighting for Nagalim, or Greater Nagaland, for decades. It is envisioned as a sovereign territory comprising Nagaland and “all contiguous Naga-inhabited areas”, including parts of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar.

In August, the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Khaplang) “unanimously impeached” Konyak for violating “party discipline”. The Centre has been talking to rebel group National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak Muivah) since a ceasefire agreement was signed in 1997. In 2015, the talks got a new lease of life after RN Ravi, the Centre’s interlocutor, signed a “framework agreement” with the group.

The Konyak-led group said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre has expressed its its willingness, via the Naga Mother’s Association and the Nagaland Gaon Burah Federation that it was “more than happy to have NSCN return to peace”. The group had walked out of the truce unilaterally before it split into two factions.

There have been several gunfire exchanges between the Indian security forces and Naga rebels since the group left the ceasefire agreement with the government.

On Monday, the Konyak-led group attributed the “confusion and divisions” within the Naga group to some group leaders with vested interests, Eastern Mirror Nagaland. “It appears that certain section of the Nagas, either out of ignorance or vested interest, seems to be misinterpreting the ongoing peace initiative between the NSCN and government of India,” the faction said.