By Our Reporter
Shillong: East Garo Hills, one of the insurgency-hit district in the State, is dedicating its prime festivals for peace, calling it ’26 funerals and the festival of peace’ to promote peace and harmony amongst different ethnic tribes.
Dubbed as Pingera Winter festival, the carnival held annually in the district is also being made a platform for appeal to bring peace and harmony between the ethnic Rabha and Garo community settled in different parts of Garo Hills and Assam.
The festival, to be held at Williamnagar, will be organised with an intention to remember the 26 people who lost their lives last year at East Garo Hills in a cruel orgy of violence in the form of ethnic clash, ambush and killings by militants and encounters by the security forces, Deputy Commissioner of East Garo Hills Pravin Bakshi said in a statement issued here on Sunday.
The strife-torn district has earned the infamy of being the most disturbed district in the entire North-East and second in India only perhaps to Dantewada which faced a far greater rate of casualties, as per unofficial estimates.
“The festival that resonates of hope against hope, the festival that echoes redemption and peace, the festival that celebrates fortitude and communal harmony shall be organized with an air of solemnity on the December 8 and 9”, Bakshi said adding that a massive prayer meeting for peace involving churches and religious denominations shall be a central programme during the festival.
The festival shall coincide with another major event – the launch of the ambitious Aquaculture Mission in Williamnagar which promises to herald a fishery revolution in the district.
It was mentioned that the much-talked about Mission shall set the roadmap for the construction of fishery ponds, commercial and large scale production of fish, fish seed production, improving quality nutrient content of fish and training and hand holding with fish farmers .
The 2011 version of the cultural extravaganza named after the mystic bird Pingera from which presumably the Achiks traces their ascendance has been dedicated to the clarion call of peace. The theme of the winter festival shall be “In harmony with nature, culture and adventure”.
The DC also mentioned that the winter festival shall provide an enviable platform to the budding entrepreneurs of the district to showcase their products.