Famous English rock band Smokie will perform live early next month to help raise scholarship money for children whose parents died battling militants in the jungles of Garo Hills and for the September 24 flash flood victims.

The band, which will perform at the Hornbill Festival in Nagaland, will take the stage here on December 5 to help raise funds for the two causes, a spokesperson of the organiser Police Officers Wives association for Care (POWAC) said.

The Art and Culture department would collaborate to help raise money for Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for the September 24 flashfloods victims in Garo Hills region which claimed over 64 lives. Meghalaya’s Garo Hills region is one of the conflict zones in the north east with militant outfits mushrooming and engaging themselves in gun fire with security forces almost on a daily basis.

Last year nine Meghalaya police personnel had died while on duty and their school going children need support, the official said. Smokies’ performance in this north eastern state will be held six months after international metal band Dying Fetus performed at the Shillong Open Air Festival.