SHILLONG: While expressing the desire for peace talks with the state government, the banned HNLC on Tuesday said that the outfit was serious for a political dialogue as it stands unified for a political solution that is necessary to bring peace in the state.
In response to the peace talks offer by the government by entrusting the two interlocutors to approach HNLC, the publicity secretary of HNLC Saiñkupar Nongtraw in a statement said that the state government should make public the names of the interlocutors within a timeframe as soon as they are ready to initiate the first round of talks.
The state government recently appointed two interlocutors and the same needs to be approved by the Centre.
The HNLC said that the appointment of interlocutors by the state government is a positive step and added that this should have been done long time back but ” due to the lackadaisical attitude of the government, the whole process was derailed”.
According to the outfit , it was infact the HNLC which had initiated peace talks and also declared a unilateral ceasefire, but neither the police department nor the state government took it seriously.
The HNLC said that the cadres are not born criminals, but circumstances led them to the paths that they are on today. “We have experienced enough bloodshed in the past. Now it is time to change the course of future of our forthcoming generations”, HNLC said
According to HNLC, following the “stepmotherly” attitude of the state government, the council decided to upgrade its fire power by engaging its cadres in planting IEDs.
“We have been waiting for long for peace to prevail in our region. We stand unified for a political solution that is necessary to bring peace in the Hynñiewtrep as a whole. Any kind of political manipulation by the Meghalaya Government will backfire”, HNLC said, adding that while the outfit is serious for a political dialogue, the state government should not lower the pace in the peace process, others wise , “we shall be compelled to communicate directly to Ministry of Home Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office”,
According to HNLC, if the outfit approaches directly , the Centre will respond to its proposal, but the outfit still insisted that they still have hope that the Meghalaya government will take care of the matter and initiate the whole exercise in its interest and the interest of the people.
“Let us engage in peace talks rather than engaging ourselves in bloodshed. The recent IEDs were planted in secluded areas to show an example to the police department and the Meghalaya Government that we do not want bloodshed. Otherwise many lives would have been lost”, the outfit said.
According to HNLC, the outfit has always been underestimated by the police department, and in fact “they were the ones that compelled us to upgrade our fire power into explosives”, HNLC said, while adding that the police should have given them a chance to prove themselves.
“Yes we have proved in the last one year that we are not blood thirsty unlike our counterparts in the state of Meghalaya. The Chief Minister should come out and show that he is not biased nor practice partiality. He should rather choose to be transparent and honest in his deeds” HNLC added .
