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After a meeting with political leaders from Manipur on Sunday night, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had said the Centre would review the ceasefire agreement.
However, official sources in Delhi said on Monday night that the Centre would not take any view on the matter without consulting the concerned Naga groups.
Minister of State for Home I D Swami had also told reporters that Centre's interlocutor K Padmanabhaiah would discuss the matter with NSCN (I-M) leader Thuingaleng Muivah.
The agreement had been arrived at between two entities and it is proper that the other party is consulted before a decision is taken, the sources said, emphasising that the ceasefire was without any territorial limit and therefore was applicable all over the country.
The sources said the Centre had not used the word 'Naga-inhabited areas' as it could have had an immediate repercussion on such areas in the Northeast.
They said the Centre would not have taken a decision on the issue if the chief ministers of the region had opposed the ceasefire extension earlier as they were doing now.
Following discussions with the chief ministers, the government had got the impression that they would favour the extension, the sources added.
Meanwhile, the United Committee Manipur, spearheading the anti-ceasefire stir in the state, threatened to intensify the agitation and demanded total withdrawal of the ceasefire.
Thousands of anti-ceasefire protestors marched through the streets of Imphal and staged sit-in demonstrations in other parts of the state demanding revocation and not review of the extension of the truce as shops across the Valley downed shutters in the first major reaction to Vajpayee's announcement.
A large number of people, including a sizable section of women, turned out for the sit-in protests.
Carrying placards saying - 'We want withdrawal of ceasefire not review' - the processionists, including several non-Manipuris marched though the streets as army and paramilitary personnel kept vigil. There was no report of violence.
Business establishments and entertainment houses remained closed in the Khwairamband complex in Imphal, the largest marketing centre in the state, and also across the Valley in support of the anti-ceasefire stir.
A report from Kohima said the Nagaland People's Council, a regional political party, took strong exception to the Prime Minister's assurance about review of ceasefire and said any change in the hard-bargained ceasefire truce covering all Naga inhabited areas of the Northeast would only jeopardise the ongoing peace initiative.
The Naga People's Movement for Human Rights, a leading NGO of the state, expressed apprehension that any backtracking from the truce might derail the peace process.
Similar concern was expressed by the Naga Student Federation on the issue of review of the ceasefire agreement.
The Anti-ceasefire Agitation: Complete Coverage
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