Mizo National Front (MNF) president Zoramthanga today claimed that he had contacted NSCN (I-M) supremo Shangwang Shangyung Khaplang through messengers and the 76-year-old Naga militant leader agreed to meet him.
Addressing party workers at the MNF office here, he claimed that both the Centre and the Myanmar government had "urged" him to contact Khaplang so that peace negotiations could be initiated with the NSCN faction camping in Myanmar.
"Though the Indian and Myanmar governments asked me to talk to Khaplang, I did not approach him directly without knowing if he was willing to meet me," the former Mizoram chief minister said, adding that the Naga underground leader told the messenger that he was willing to arrange such a meeting.
A recent media report had claimed that neither the PMO nor the Ministry of Home Affairs had asked the former MNF underground leader to contact Khaplang and it was used by other political parties, including the ruling Congress in Mizoram, to slam Zoramthanga.
The Congress, quoting the news report, had alleged that Zoramthanga himself was lobbying for his appointment as an interlocutor in the ongoing peace talks with the insurgent groups in Assam.
To this, Zoramthanga today retorted that "a security officer in the PMO" would not be knowing of the peace mission as only he and National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval were involved in it.
He said none among the MHA, NIA, IB and RAW or the Foreign Minister would know of the peace mission.
Zoramthanga claimed that he and Doval recently attended the ceremony of signing of the ceasefire agreement between the Myanmar government and the ethnic-based insurgent outfits at Naypidaw.
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