The Centre has taken a cautious “wait and watch” approach to the Maoists’ latest offer of a month-long ceasefire in West Bengal and is awaiting chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s response before taking any formal view.

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Mamata is expected to take a call on the offer after the Puja on October 11, and after discussing it with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.

The security forces involved in the anti-Maoist operations, however, have termed the offer a ploy of the rebels to buy time to prepare and entrench themselves for a protracted war in the three districts of their influence.

The Maoists’ offer incidentally came after Mamata’s threat to go all out against the ultras on September 25 following four months of soft-line approach.

In the ceasefire offer, CPI (Maoist) state secretary Ashim Mandal alias Akash said, “We are in favour of peace. If the state government promises to halt joint operations for a month and adhere to it in letter and spirit, we will also restrain arms for the same duration.”

However, a senior official involved in anti-Maoist operations said: “It will be a repeat of the Andhra experience of 2004, when the Maoist got into a ceasefire agreement and used the opportunity to lay mines, increase area of overground support and recruit cadre. History shows that it was a huge tactical blunder for which Andhra had to bear great cost.”

Another worry for the security establishment is that the ceasefire has been offered only for West Bengal and none of the other states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa where Maoists are in stronger position.

“If they are serious about the offer then it should be pan-India. The political leadership should think about it carefully before plunging into any sort of agreement. It may turn into a misadventure,” another security official said.