HNLC offers tripartite talks to end armed struggle

Shillong, Aug 16 (UNI) The outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) has offered for a tripartite talk to end the two-decade-old insurgency in Meghalaya.

''We are willing for negotiation and hope that one day we would achieve our aim,'' HNLC general secretary Cheristerfield Thangkhiew said.

The HNLC's offer for the tripartite talk assumed significance in the backdrop of its chairman Julius K Dorphang's return to the national mainstream. Last month, Dorphang sneaked into India from his hideout in Bangladesh and gave up his armed struggle for a sovereign ''Hynniewtrep homeland''.

In a press statement issued to a section of the vernacular dailies on the 20th raising day of the HNLC on August 14, Thangkhiew said the HNLC was keen to end bloodshed and willing to sit for talks. But his statement did not give details about the others who are to be invited in the talks.

UNI