KATHMANDU, May 10: In what is being viewed as a ploy to buy time for reorganization, a top leader of a Maoist group on Thursday announced a unilateral ceasefire to be effective from May 15.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is currently in the US, promptly rejected the offer. Deuba questioned rebels’ sincerity during a live interview he gave from New York.

In a statement simultaneously faxed to several news organizations, Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda warned the government that if “suppression of the people” did not stop during the month ahead, the Maoists will be forced to “involve ourselves in an intensive and decisive” war.

The decision on the ceasefire, according to Prachanda, was taken on “friends’ suggestion” to adopt a flexible policy.

He did not identify who the friends were, nor did he clarify whether the ceasefire is meant to resume the talks Maoists had abandoned in November.

The existing government stand on the issue is that it would not agree to any peace talks proposal so long as the Maoists until the Maoists surrendered their weapons.

In the statement Prachanda, who carries price on his head, also denounced Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for preparing to invite American imperialism whose long-term strategy was to “encircle China and force India to bow before it”.

The latest Maoist gesture has surfaced days after they lost a couple of hundred guerillas in the actions taken by security forces in Rolpa, a district on the remote western hills.

Besides, the ceasefire offer has come a day after India’s Maoist group, presumed to be based in Andhra Pradesh state, made an identical ceasefire announcement.

“Maoists appear to have eventually realized that their violent movement cannot sustain for long,” said Pprof Lokraj Baral of the Centre for Contemporary Studies.

In his view, the truce offer is a genuine one.

But other analysts are sceptical. “The deceptive approach they adopted last year is too glaring to be glossed over,” said Bharat Raj Pidit, editor of Seemankan, a Nepali language weekly.

Unless they surrender the guns stolen from army barracks, the authorities must not consider their proposal for peace talks, he added.