Meghalaya welcomes talks offer by banned outfit HNLC

Meghalaya on Wednesday welcomed the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC)'s offer for unconditional peace talks even as Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma revealed that several people were being considered for the all-important job of acting as an interlocutor with the banned outfit.

Addressing media persons after chairing a meeting, Sangma said that though HNLC has made the offer through a statement a formal missive to the government was still awaited. “In the interest of peace, we would like to move in this direction and based on that the government of Meghalaya has already started going through different names for (appointment of an) interlocutor (to start facilitating the peace process with the HNLC),” the chief minister said.

He said while the government welcomes step taken by HNLC in offering to hold peace talks without any pre-conditions through a statement released Tuesday, the authorities ''are now awaiting a formal written letter from their side”.

Interestingly the development comes on the heels of a bomb blast in Shillong last month which the outfit was involved in.

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