Meghalaya govt initiates talks with a terror outfit in hill state
After the Centre’s nod, the Meghalaya government has initiated the process to hold formal talks with the banned militant outfit Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), officials said on Friday. A senior official of the Meghalaya Home Department said that the has appointed retired Ias officer Peter S Dkhar as the interlocutor for facilitating the talks with the HNLC, which also last month offered to hold peace talks with the Centre and the Meghalaya government without any pre-conditions.
The HNLC has claimed responsibility for the low-intensity blasts that took place in recent months in the heart of Shillong and other areas in the state. While militancy is on the decline in Meghalaya over the last several years, but since 2020 the HNLC has been behind a few low-intensity IED blasts in the state. The HNLC, which has been demanding a sovereign Khasi tribal homeland in Meghalaya, is a breakaway faction of the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council, the first tribal militant outfit of the mountainous state, formed in the mid-1980s.