Shillong, Jan 19: Meghalaya government on Friday asked the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to reconsider its decision to pull out of the tripartite peace talks with the Centre and State governments.

According to the Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Home, Prestone Tynsong, the government is ready to meet the top leaders of the HNLC at their “preferred location” to take forward and ensure the peace talks have a positive conclusion.

The HNLC chairman cum C-in-C Bobby Marwein and general secretary cum publicity secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw had submitted a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs through its Advisor AK Mishra informing its decision to withdraw from the peace talks citing that the government has failed to address the five core demands that include providing general amnesty to the leaders and cadres of the outfit.

“Golden opportunity may happen once or twice but it will not happen every now and then. So my humble request to the leaders of the HNLC is to rethink and revisit the decision that you have taken and communicated to the government,” Tynsong told reporters.

“I (also) want to request its top leaders that if they are afraid that they might get arrested, I urge them to choose a location, we (government) are ready to meet you there and discuss because we want to ensure the peace talks are successful and come to a positive conclusion,” he said.

Tynsong also clarified the reason behind the government’s request to hold talks with top leaders of the outfit and said, “Since the authorized people of the HNLC cannot take any decision (during the talks held with the government), we insist that meeting be held with top leaders, who can take decision (on several issues) because we want the talks to have a logical conclusion. Therefore, the top leaders should come forward (to the negotiating table).”

He said that the HNLC’s decision to withdraw from the peace talks came as a shock to the government.

On the HNLC’s demand for general amnesty, Tynsong said that in fact that during the first round of peace talks, the government interlocutor and MHA advisor had already requested the outfit to submit a list of its cadres, who have got pending cases in different courts so that the government can workout on what is to be done. According to him, the HNLC never furnished the names of its cadres and the pending cases against them.

“We have asked for details but they did not furnish that so ultimately we keep waiting and instead we received a letter that they don’t want to continue with the peace talks anymore because of this. In fact this issue has already been discussed in the first meeting itself. That is why the authorized representatives of the HNLC also went back to Bangladesh to discuss with their top leaders about the issues, what was the discussion, what was the justification and offer made by the government to their top leaders,” he said.

The outfit had also cited that the summon notices issued by the NIA and the Court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Shillong while the peace talks were ongoing – had created a lot of trust deficit.

Asked on this, Tynsong however said the summon notices are not issued by the Centre or State government as the matter is purely the responsibility of the judiciary.

“But still let me reiterate. I told you the assurance given by the State and Central government. Please give us all the details, the members of how many of them are it is only one or two or three of them who are subjected to the court cases or maybe 30 or 20.”

“That is why in the first meeting of the peace talk that has been highlighted and that has also been requested by the authorized representative of MHA as well as by the interlocutor of the government to the members of HNLC. We said don’t worry, give us all the details then we will prepare for the second talk,” he said.

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