Shillong, July 19: In a major development, the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), Central Government and State Government have reached an agreement about granting safe passage to the HNLC leaders for engaging in peace talks.
Revealing this here on Tuesday, HNLC’s interlocutor Sadon Blah said that during the last three months, the executive Committee of HNLC has held three rounds of meetings with the State’s interlocutor, P S Dkhar.
“Till date, there is a development that there has been an agreement from the Central Government, State Government and HNLC specifically with regard to the safe passage in the sense that the leaders of HNLC who are to be engaged in peace process can come and go and can station themselves within the territory of Meghalaya,”
According to Blah, as the safe passage has been granted, it is expected that in the next few weeks, HNLC leaders will be joining the discussions regarding the issues and agendas of peace process
Stating that the intention of the safe passage is to enable the HNLC leaders to come forward and have direct discussions with authorities be it Centre or the state government, he added that the move would speed up the peace process if they are able to join the discussion and do the negotiation with the centre and the state
Blah, however, refused to comment anything as far as ceasefire is concerned saying question of ceasefire is not appropriate to be discussed right now.
He said that if the ceasefire has to happen, it will happen only after HNLC leaders put forward their views in front of the Central and the State Government even as he added that right now, they would have to discuss about the legality of allowing the HNLC to come to the negotiation table first.
On being asked about rehabilitation of cadres, he said that this is a normal protocol which Government has to follow and in the coming days, the Government will have to take a decision as far as rehabilitation of cadres is concern.
Earlier this year, Meghalaya government had appointment retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Peter S Dkhar as the interlocutor for facilitating the peace talks with the rebel outfit – Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC).
Dkhar, who was a former deputy commissioner of East Khasi Hills and West Jaintia Hills, is being assisted by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Adviser, North East and retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer AK Mishra
Later, HNLC appointed the Hynniewtrep National Youth Front (HNYF) president Sadon K Blah to represent the outfit while having peace talks with the interlocutors appointed by the government.
The HNLC had sent the official communication expressing its readiness for unconditional peace talks on February 10. This was following the appeal made by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma while responding to the outfit’s peace offer on February 8.