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GUWAHATI, India, Tuesday (AFP) A British national has been arrested in Indias northeastern state of Nagaland on charges of aiding and abetting terrorism, police said Tuesday.

A police spokesman said David Ward, a resident of Edinburgh, was arrested on Sunday in Tuensang district of Nagaland, 300 kilometres (185 miles) east of the state capital Kohima.

"Ward was arrested on charges of aiding and abetting separatist insurgency, besides not possessing any valid travel documents," N.N. Walling, Nagalands Additional Police Chief, told AFP by telephone from Kohima. "He is now behind bars and we are interrogating him."

Ward had been earlier arrested in Nagaland in 1992 along with another Briton, Stephen Hill, after the two were allegedly caught trying to masquerade as journalists from the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Indian government later deported the two to Britain after four months in custody. "Ward is believed to have sneaked into Nagaland sometime in July last year but several attempts made to arrest him turned futile as he was being backed by militants of the Naga National Council (NNC)," the police official said.

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