Process of negotiation between Centre & HNLC stalled due to COVID-19: Hek
The process of negotiation between the Centre and the banned militant outfit of Meghalaya - Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) - was stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic besides other reasons, Advisor to the Chief Minister, AL Hek said on Monday.
“We want Meghalaya to be a militant-free state and for that, we have to speed up negotiations between militant outfits and the Center," said Hek, who had volunteered to personally take up the HNLC's offer for peace talks with the Centre last year.
The HNLC, which runs its operations from a hideout in Bangladesh, has been demanding a sovereign Hynniewtrep homeland in Meghalaya for the last two decades.
Stating that the government is duty-bound to ensure peace in the state, Hek said that HNLC had sent him a message to discuss peace talks with the Centre, but refused to divulged further information on the same.
Hek's statement came just days after the Opposition Congress claimed that militants are "re-grouping" in the Garo Hills region of Meghalaya.
In June 2020, Hek, who was the then health minister, had expressed readiness to take up the “peace talks” offer of the HNLC with the Government of India but maintained that the process should be in accordance with the conditions laid down by the Union Home Ministry and if there is a requirement for “surrender before peace talks”, then the same should be adhered to.
Besides Hek, the Meghalaya BJP unit had also offered to act as a mediator between the HNLC and the Government of India; the offer however did not go down well with the militant outfit as it termed the saffron party's attempt as a "political stunt meant to earn some brownie points before the public."
The offer for peace talks was made by the HNLC way back in 2018, where it had also demanded an interlocutor. Again in 2019, the outfit had expressed its readiness for peace talks "within the ambit of the Constitution of India or even outside the Constitution as per requirements".
In October last year, Hek met the then Minister of State (Home) G Kishan Reddy and apprised him of the HNLC offer, which, according to Hek, was welcomed by the Centre.
“We are concerned about the people; we don’t want to see people suffering. With the resurgence of militant groups, (there will be) kidnapping and murders; we don’t want this to happen in Meghalaya," Hek said on Monday.
Recently, when asked about the HNLC's demand for tripartite talks, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had reiterated the government's stand on militancy, asserting that the HNLC needs to first shun violence before coming to the talking table.
(Edited by Ibankyntiew Mawrie)
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