Manipur government will soon hold peace talks with the Lallumba faction of banned militant outfit, Kangleipak Communist Party-Military Council (KCP-MC), official sources said today.
The decision to hold the talks was taken during a cabinet meeting presided over by chief minister O Ibobi Singh yesterday, the sources said.
The meeting was held after the outfit agreed to lay down arms and abjure violence.
The state and central governments had been communicating with the outfit for the past few months to chalk out the programme and strategy for holding the peace talks, the sources said.
There are more than 18 militant outfits operating in the border state.
While some major outfits were waging an armed struggle for an 'independent Manipur,' some hill-based militant outfits were fighting for disintegration of Manipur, which is about 22,327 sq km in size, to form smaller states on ethnic lines within the Indian constitution, the sources said.
The KCP-MC Lallumba faction has been fighting for an 'independent Manipur' for some years.
