Mizoram’s Hmar People’s Convention (Democratic) signed a peace deal with the state government on Monday to end decades of violence. The outfit will lay down 48 arms during the “home coming ceremony”, IANS reported on Tuesday.

The Memorandum of Settlement was signed by Chief Secretary Arvind Ray and the group’s president H Zosangbera. According to the memorandum, the state government will grant amnesty to all the outfit’s cadres who have criminal cases against them. The government will also take steps to provide relief and rehabilitation for the cadres.

Moreover, the existing Sinlung Hills Development Council, which was constituted in 1994 for socio-economic, political and cultural development of tribal people, will be rechristened as the Sinlung Hills Council, the memorandum read.

The Hmar tribal people live in Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam. The group came into existence in 1986 as the Mizo Peace Accord failed to meet the expectations of the Hmar tribal people. In 1994, the outfit laid down arms after it signed a memorandum of settlement with the Mizoram government.

Unhappy with the implementation of the deal, a section of the outfit formed the Hmar People’s Convention (Democratic) and have since been demanding a separate autonomous district council – under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution – by carving out areas adjoining southern Manipur, northern Mizoram and southern Assam.