Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Wednesday held a meeting with Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla in Delhi to discuss peace overtures with banned militant outfit Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC).

The Chief Minister after the meeting with Bhalla said that the HNLC has recently written a letter to the Meghalaya government expressing their willingness to talk with the Center and the state government unconditionally and he updated the MHA officials in this regard.

Sangma said, “The HNLC’s proposal to initiate talks with the governments under the parameters of the constitution is a welcome step. They are keen to talk with the government for the interest of peace and development. More positive development expected to take place in the next few days”.

Sangma tweeted: “Following the required process to take forward the peace talks with HNLC, met the Home Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs to discuss the same. The Government of Meghalaya is committed to see this through.”

HNLC in its statement had stated earlier that the organisation has decided to sit with the governments after getting a lot of requests from senior citizens and various organisations during the past few weeks.

The militant outfit said that the peace initiative was disrupted after last year’s killing or the ‘fake encounter’ of the group’s former General Secretary Cherishterfield Thangkhiew.