SHILLONG, NOV 22: The proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) today luaded the initiative of the NDA government at the centre and the Art of Living to bring the outfit to the negotiating table.
“The organisation expressed its gratefulness to the BJP Government and the AoL for their willingness to bring the HNLC to the negotiating table,” HNLC publicity secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw said in a statement issued here on Wednesday.
This came a day after two Art of Living activists were arrested in West Jaintia Hills district on charges of conspiracy and of having aligning with the HNLC, a banned militant organisation.
Lamsalanki Pariat from Jowai and Samir Jolly hailing from Noida, were picked up from the border crossing at Dawki. Jolly is an International Faculty Member of the organisation.
Acting on inputs received that the duo were in contact with leaders of the HNLC in Bangladesh and having learnt that they were invited by the leaders of outfit, the police swooped and arrested them.
Terming the arrest as “illegal”, Nongtraw said that these activists of the Art of Living are doing a good work but the police are obstructing in the way whenever the outfit wants to come forward for peace talks.
“These (arrested activists) are our people but they are the people of the government at the Centre, which have given them the permission to meet the leaders of the outfit for facilitating the peace talk,” he said.
On the other hand, the HNLC leader blamed the then Congress-led UPA government at the centre for not taking the matter seriously when the outfit had expressed its willingness to come forward for talks in 2004.
“And it is the Congress-led state government under the leadership of chief minister Mukul Sangma which have made the offer and then rejected the same to have talks with the HNLC in 2014,” he said.
Nongtraw also stated that if the activists of the Art of Living were arrested only on ground that they did not get permission from the state government to meet the leaders of the HNLC then what prevented the police from arrested the then home minister Roshan Warjri, who had spoken to the outfit’s general secretary without the knowledge of the government.
Having said this, the publicity secretary went on to reiterated the outfit’s allegation against the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA-II) for continuing to seek the HNLC’s support for the upcoming 2018 state Assembly elections.
“It is surprising that the state government had continue to sent feelers in the month of May this year to seek the support of the outfit for the upcoming poll,” he said.
Stating that the Congress led government at Delhi and Meghalaya had failed to resolve this issue since 2004, Nongtraw however said, “Then what it is their problem if the BJP government and Art of Living are trying to restore peace in Meghalaya.”
By Our Reporter
+ There are no comments
Add yours