Shillong, Jan 19: The State Government on Friday renewed its appeal to the proscribed HNLC to review its decision to withdraw from the tripartite peace talks.
Talking to reporters, Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said that the government was ready to meet the HNLC top leaders to continue with the peace talks at any place which they feel safe.
According to him, the NPP-led MDA Government is fully committed to take the peace talks to its logical end.
“But now it is for the HNLC top leaders to decide since this kind of golden opportunity will not happen every now and then. As the government we have accepted the letter which the proscribed HNLC had sent to us to withdraw from the peace talks. But the door is still open to continue with the peace talks,” Tynsong said.
Deputy Chief Minister said that the state government is insisting that top leaders should be part of the peace talks since the leaders authorized by the top leadership are not able to take any decision.
“We would want leaders who will be able to take any decision on the spot. Otherwise we will reach nowhere since whatever issues we discussed they have to ultimately go back and discuss with their top leaders in Bangladesh,” Tynsong said.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that in the second official talks they wanted the HNLC top leadership to be part.
“It was shocking for both the State Government and Centre when they received this letter from the HNLC since everything was going very smoothly,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Minister said that it is wrong on the part of the HNLC to blame the Centre and State Government for not considering their demands.
Mentioning that the first demand of the outfit was to drop all cases which was registered against the cadres should be withdrawn, he said that in the first official meeting the interlocutor of the state government along with authorised representative from the Central Government had already explain and ask them to submit the list of the cadres who have got cases in different courts anywhere.
“These names were never furnished. How will we be able to know how many cadres outfits who have got cases in different courts,” Deputy Chief Minister said.
He said that the government has provided safe passage to the leaders of the outfit who have come to facilitate the peace talk right from day one and they were dropped back on September 16 last year.