Aizawl: The Mizoram govt is scheduled to sign a peace pact with the Lalhmingthanga Sanate’s faction of the armed underground Hmar People’s Convention (Democratic) at Sakawrdai village in Aizawl district on April 14, state home department officials said on Monday.The officials said the peace agreement will be signed between the home secretary, on behalf of the state govt, and HPC (D) president Sanate, on behalf of the Hmar outfit, in the presence of the adviser to CM (political) Lalmuanpuia Punte. The home coming of the 43 cadres of the HPC (D) will be undertaken during April when the underground cadres will lay down their arms in front of the authorities.A deal to ink the peace pact was recently sealed at a meeting between the govt officials and the HPC (D) delegation-led by Sanate at the office of Punte in Aizawl. The peace agreement is expected to finally end the Hmar insurgency in Mizoram.Sources said the HPC (D) does not have any political demands. Development package, including improvement of rural connectivity in Sinlung Hills Council (SHC) area, was being agreed by the state govt along with rehabilitation package and general amnesty to all the erstwhile underground cadres. Rates of payment for surrendered arms will be done in accordance with the rates being fixed by the home affairs ministry.Cadres of the HPC (D) faction led by Sanate are the last remnants of Hmar insurgency which began in late 1980s. HPC (D) is an offshoot of the Hmar People’s Convention (HPC), which came into existence in 1986 as a political party spearheading a movement for self-govt in the north and northeast of Mizoram.Since April 1987, the HPC waged an armed struggle for setting up of an autonomous district council under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which touched extreme levels of violence towards 1991.A memorandum of settlement (MoS) was signed between the Mizoram govt and the HPC on July 27, 1994, for establishing the ‘Sinlung Hills Development Council’ (SHDC) and subsequently, 308 HPC militants surrendered along with their arms.However, dissatisfied with the implementation process, a section of the cadres parted ways with the over ground HPC and formed the HPC (D) in 1994 led by Sanate.
