Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong has said that the outlawed Hynñiewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) have been asked to submit the list of its cadres booked under various cases in both lower and higher courts throughout the state.
According to Tynsong the interlocutor of the government and the representative from the Ministry of Home Affairs had explained to the HNLC on the need to furnish the list when the peace talks began. “We kept waiting for the list, but instead we received the withdrawal letter,” he said.
He told reporters that the HNLC were given a safe passage during the first phase of the tripartite peace talks with the state government and the centre. On their demand to lift the ban on it, the Deputy Chief Minister said, “We said this is a peace talk and it has just started once. Let us continue to with the talks to reach to that point. But unfortunately they withdrew.”
Tynsong said the HNLC’s withdrawal from the peace talks came as a “shock” because all the demands raised by them were discussed in the first tripartite peace talks.
He reiterated that top leaders of the HNLC should come to the negotiating table and said, “Our door is still open even though you have sent us the withdrawal letter.”
“Think a thousand times and don’t just blame the government. You will not get this golden opportunity when it has reached this stage. If you feel unsafe to come here, we are ready for the talks anywhere fixed by the HNLC,” he said.
