The HPC (D), a breakaway group of the Hmar People’s Convention (HPC), came to the fore in 1996 to demand an autonomous district council for the Hmar areas under the Sixth Schedule.
Reports from its bastion at Sakerdawi in northeast Mizoram revealed that H. Zosangbera, a frontline member of the 12-member executive council, has been named its new chairman.
The outfit’s Assam committee has also been revamped with its vice-chairman Elvis L. Hmar being appointed its chief and David L. Hmar, an executive council member, being inducted as its secretary.
The HPC (D) has already entered into an accord with the Assam government for peaceful negotiations on their longstanding demand for autonomy of Hmar areas in the state.
The outfit’s publicity cell last week made it clear that it “would from now on enter a new chapter of the peace process in Assam, Manipur and Mizoram to realise the political aspirations of the Hmar people”.
Factional squabbles within the HPC (D) have been simmering since last August with its 200-cadre outfit getting divided into two groups.
— one led by former chairman Lalhmingthanga Sanate and another by H. Zosangbera.
The differences began when Sanate made it clear that he and his followers would not take a peaceful approach to the autonomous demand. Sanate was subsequently “impeached” by the executive council of the outfit on September 29 last year.