TURA: A day after commander-in-chief of the GNLA issued a statement urging six other Garo militant outfits of the region to enter into peace dialogue with the state government for the sake of peace and development of the region, Chiindik Marak, the chairman of the United A’chik Liberation Army (UALA) turned down the proposal saying it was fighting for the rights of the Garo people unlike the GNLA who he alleged was misleading the people in the name of a separate Garo State.
Chiindik also accused GNLA of unleashing terror all over Garo Hills by senseless killings and destroying of property for its own ends.
On the proposal by the GNLA chief for the formation of the Garo United Liberation Front (GULF) the rival militant leader said, “We will never welcome the proposal of GNLA until and unless talks are initiated on the separate state issue in order to press for peaceful separate Garoland State”. The UALA Chairman however said that it would definitely support the peace process once the government reveals what it termed its ‘hidden agenda’. “Since we too are peace loving people we are ready to halt violence once and for all and join the peace settlement for the sake of everlasting peace if and when such a decision for holding of talks is received from the state and the Central Government,” the militant leader said.
The other five militant outfits named in the proposal by the GNLA Chief included Liberation of A’chik Elite Force (LAEF), A’chik Tiger Force (ATF), former GNLA Commander Reding T Sangma led A’chik Songna An’pachakgipa Kotok (ASAK), A’chik National Liberation Central Army (ANLCA) and the A’chik National Cooperative Army (ANCA). Interestingly, another newly formed militant outfit Matchadu Matchabet under former ANVC (B) leader Mat Me’mang did not figure in the list.
