Imphal, December 04, 2008: A group of KCP (MC) led by one Hitendra held the first round trilateral talks with the representatives of the Government of India and Government of Manipur today in New Delhi, an official source here said.

Today's talks which was held an undisclosed place at the national capital was a preliminary round and reportedly ended with no conclusive decision.

But it was agreed that the parties meet again for the next rounds of talks after 10 to 15 days, the source added.

Official source here said that in the trilateral talk with the KCP(MC) group led by Hitendra, state Chief Secretary Rakesh, Principal Home Secretary, DS Poonia and state police chief Y Joykumar took part.

Officials of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs represented the Union government.

Even though officials taking part in the talks were not available for immediate comment on the outcome of the talks, source said that the first round of trilateral talks mainly focused on the details of the surrender policy of the state government and as it was a preliminary round, there was no agreement on the condition to which the group would come forward, the source said.

It was however agreed that the next round of talks will be held in the next 10 to 15 days but no final date was fixed, the sources added.

Mention may be made here that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had recently intimated the Manipur government that a group of underground group had appraised them for en-masse surrender.

Later, the State Cabinet thoroughly discussed the matter and authorized Chief Secretary Rakesh to prepare for the same and initiate the talk with the group.

The recent development come in the wake of a majority of the Kuki militants operating in the hill areas of the state coming to the negotiating table by signing tripartite agreement on suspension of operation (SoO).

The SoO agreement was signed separately between Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and United People Front (UPF) in August this year.

KNO represent 18 Kuki militant outfits including some factions while UPF has eight constituent outfits.

Currently, the process for identifications of places for setting up designated camps of the outfits who entered into the SoO agreement is in progress.

But when media en-masse published a report on the Cabinet decision regarding discussion on the MHA intimation to the state for necessary action on the appraisal of the a group of KCP (MC), the groups who reacted to the news report of holding talks with government still remaining silent.

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