AIZAWL: Mizoram government will not resume talks with Hmar People’s Convention (D) ‘merely’ because of the Centre’s pressure to do so, state Home minister R Lalzirliana said on Sunday.
Lalzirliana told PTI here that the Union Home Ministry had recently sent a letter to state chief secretary Van Hela Pachuau instructing the state government to resume negotiations with HPC-D.
“How could the Centre ask us to talk to the outfit now when the Union Home Ministry, a few months back, had itself asked state governments to deal with the insurgent outfits as dacoits? ” he asked.
The Centre had signed Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement with several north east ultra groups, including HPC-D on the condition that their cadres would be confined within designated camps and that they would deposit their arms with the security forces.
The HPC-D cadres had not only not remained in the designated camps but had also never deposited their arms and continued to indulge in violent and illegal activities, including extortion from across the Manipur border, he said.
“Even if we want to comply with the Union Home Ministry’s diktat, it would be difficult to decide to which faction of the outfit we would engage in the parleys as it now has two of them,” he said.
The Hmars belong to the Chin-Kuki-Mizo group of tribes, and are recognised as Scheduled Tribe under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution of India. Literally, Hmar means North or Northern people, as they are living north to the Lusei people.
Hmars live mostly in the hills of south Manipur, Mizoram, Cachar, North Cachar, Meghalaya, Tripura and Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Although these areas are within different administrative divisions, they are geographically connected.
In Mizoram, the Hmars live mostly in the north, especially in the Aizawl District.
With creation of Autonomous Regional Council for the Hmars, in line with those granted to the Pawi (Lai), Lakher (Mara) and the Chakma, as its objective, Hmar Regional Movement was launched in 1964 at Palsang village in north Mizoram. The movement was mainly fostered by the feeling of neglect by the state government.
The Mizoram government and HPC-D had signed a pact on Suspension of Operation to last for six months on Novemeber 11, 2010 after concluding their peacetalks.
The pact was, however, short lived as several differences cropped up between the two sides and the state government officially announced in July last year that it would not resume talks with the outfit as the Centre had already iniatiated talks with the group. The party apparently stood henceforth as representing the Hmars of Mizoram state. (PTI)