Shillong: United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) should approach the Assam Government and not the media for beginning peace talks, State Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ajai Singh said today (Oct 30, 2004) cautioning at the same time that the talks offers by different insurgent outfits could be a ploy to regroup themselves.

''No ULFA cadre contacted me. I come to know through the media that they have contacted a writer in Guwahati. But ULFA should take initiative to approach the authorities which is the Assam Government,'' he told reporters in Shillong on the sidelines of a golf tournament.

Singh said he came to know from the media that ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua had contacted newspaper houses in Guwahati about the talks. But he had contacted nobody in the Government.

The Governor said the fact that more and more insurgent outfits are coming for dialogues could be an indication of two things. First, they were so broken that there was no option left for them.

Second, they were trying to regroup themselves by using the strategy of talks.

''This is a more dangerous manoeuvring and a part of the militants' strategy to regroup in which dialogues are just an escape route,'' Lt Gen (Retd) Singh, who had commanded an army corps during 'Operation Bajrang' in the early 1990s in the Northeast, said.

In a clear disapproval of ULFA's demand for sovereignty as a pre-condition of the talks, he categorically said the dialogues should be on ''our terms and pressure should be maintained on them (ULFA).''

Asked to comment on the status of militancy in the Northeast, Singh said it was waning in the region and now only the ''final push'' was required.

The serial blasts by ultras in Assam and Nagaland were cases of hit and run, he said adding it corroborated his views that militancy was on its way out.

Asked if he would consider the talks offer by insurgents as a positive sign, Singh said, "If you place credibility on these, then it is a development.''

Squarely blaming Pakistan's ISI for synchronisation of militants activities as in the case of serial blasts in Dimapur and Assam recently, he said it was behind the operations though they were carried out by the ULFA and NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland).

The governor said lot of diplomatic pressure was being put on Bangladesh and Myanmar to dismantle the militants' training camps in the two countries and if Yangon signs an MoU with Delhi it would be a remarkable development.

Recalling his posting as a commanding officer in Assam in the early 1990s, he said those were the ''real days'' of insurgency when none ventured out of their houses after sunset. But the situation had now improved immensely with markets crowded even in the late evening hours.

Peaceful celebration of Durga Puja was another indication of the improved conditions. ''The Assam Government is right on the top in its initiatives for the peace process,'' he said.