Shillong, Dec 31 (IANS) Fed up of killings, kidnapping and extortions, a group of 15 "peace-loving and educated youths" have vowed to restore peace through appeals and persuasion in the insurgency-ravaged Garo Hills of Meghalaya.
The Garo tribal youths have also formed the A'chik Peace Volunteers' Council (APVC) to reinstate and establish peace in the five impoverished districts of Garo hills.
"After a detailed analysis, we have concluded that the militants in the Garo Hills have been doing simple business. It is business with the blood of innocents," said APVC chief Che Guevara Marak.
"Creation of terror in the minds of people is their (militants) investment," he said.
Marak said the council would be reaching out to every individual "directly or indirectly assisting the rebels".
"We are going to reach to every individual who is directly or indirectly assisting the rebels and would also approach all village elders who are providing shelter to the rebels, the mothers who are cooking food for them (rebels), the persons who are passing information to them, the businessmen who are paying money to them with which they procure weapons and grow stronger, the middlemen who stash their money, the officers who pay to them out of fear, etc., and appeal to them to stop assisting the rebels in their blood business," Marak said.
Meghalaya, especially the Garo Hills region, is being used as a safe haven by various northeast-based militant groups, including the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM), the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
With the outlawed A'chik National Volunteers Council (ANVC) in a ceasefire agreement with the central government, the NSCN-IM and the ULFA spawned several rebel groups with the intention of exploiting the lucrative extortion in the coal-rich areas of the Garo Hills region.
"They (rebels) kill or abduct a trader, businessman or a civilian and the entire trading or business community or the civil society dances to their tune," Marak said.
"Therefore, the killing of innocent people is their investment, which yields good returns in the form of crores of extorted money. They are criminals and should be punished according to the law of the land."
The council also described as heinous the crimes committed against the Garo Hills people this year by the rebel groups - the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), breakaway faction of the A'chik National Volunteers Council (ANVC-B), United A'chik Liberation Army (UALA), Liberation A'chik Elite Force (LAEF) and many other splinter groups.
"They took away 38 lives in 2013, which included seven security personnel. Among the victims are two Nokmas (village headmen), two government officers and an assistant pastor," Marak said.
Fourteen traders and coal labourers were abducted for ransom while more than five people sustained injuries in rebel-related attacks, he added.
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