PAOTUNG, an ex-soldier in the Assam regiment, cannot forget that fateful Monday morning. Lying in his hospital bed at Dimapur, he counts himself lucky to be alive. For, 30 of his co-passengers, all Kukis, were killed after gunmen, suspected to be militants of the Issac Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Naga-land (NSCN), stopped a bus in Nagalands Peren sub-division on December 9 and opened indiscriminate fire.