SHILLONG, April 23 — Banned militant outfit of Meghalaya A’chik National Volunteer Council (ANVC), demanding a separate homeland for the Garo tribes, held preliminary peace talks with the Centre Bangkok and was keen to follow up the dialogue process, ANVC general secretary Wanding K Marak said, reports PTI. He told a select group of reporters somewhere in Assam-Meghalaya boundary area that preliminary talks, brokered by Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga, were held in January this year, and the ANVC was ready to follow up the dialogue process with the Centre.
Marak said the ANVC is not keen to go for a ceasefire, as suggested by the Centre, in the initial stages of peace talks, and instead threatened to intensify its ‘armed struggle’ to fulfill its demand for a separate Garoland. He cited the example of former insurgent outfit Mizo National Front (MNF) in this context. The ANVC leader, however, said they have not received any ‘positive response’ from the Centre so far, and made it clear nothing short of a ‘Garoland’ would be acceptable to them. Expressing gratitude to Zoramthanga for facilitating the talks with the Centre, Marak said the ANVC would be happy to have his as the negotiator during future talks.
ANVC was formed in 1995 in the Garo hills region of Meghalaya and banned in 2000. Marak said the demand for Garoland was made on the basis of Article three of the Constitution of India and a map of the proposed State covering 8,000 sq km of Meghalaya and a couple of districts of Assam was submitted to the Centre earlier. The ANVC leader said future talks with the Central Government should be based on the set of demands presented by them to the Centre.
“We believe that without creating a separate State for the Garos, it will be impossible to pave the way for overall development of the people,” Marak said, accusing the Meghalaya Government for ‘neglecting’ the Garos economically, politically and also in job reservation. He also charged the Khasi community in Meghalaya with “depriving” the Garos on various fronts.
The ANVC leader admitted that they had slapped a ‘quit’ notice to another outfit National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), asking its cadres to immediately pull out from the garo hills region for ‘doing a lot of bad things.’ NDFB’s ‘sinister designs’ had affected the peace process in the Garo hills as they were involved in kidnapping and extortion without the ‘consent’ of the ANVC.