By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The State Government on Monday asserted that it is ready to hold talks with the breakaway faction of the Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC).
Talking to reporters here on Monday, the State Chief Secretary WMS Pariat informed that the State government has already received feeler from this group for talks with the government.
The ANVC breakaway group in a statement issued to the media recently had said that it would raise the demand for a ‘Greater Garoland’ and also would demand a separate truce pact with the government.
However, according to Pariat, a meeting will be convened shortly to explore whether they should be brought under the ambit of previous tripartite peace agreement or to have separate truce pact. Nado R. Marak, who is the PS to Mokus Marak, the self-styled commander in chief of ANVC(B) had said that the group would aspire for Greater Garoland and reiterated the need to have a separate truce agreement with the government . Earlier, the breakaway faction had alleged that they were not included in the peace process by the senior leaders of the outfit.
Reacting to a query, the Chief Secretary said the government was also ascertaining what went wrong while signing the tripartite agreement with the Garo rebel group in 2004. Agreeing to the views of Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma, the Chief Secretary said it was the Centre which had initiated the move to sign the ceasefire agreement with the ANVC and the state was just a signatory.
It is learnt that there are around three hundred cadres in the breakaway faction of the ANVC.