UN Secretary General’s personal representative to Nepal, Ian Martin, held discussion with the Maoist leadership on arms management process on Thursday.

The hour-long meeting in the morning was focused on the technicalities of setting up cantonments and arms storages as agreed between the seven-party alliance and the Maoists, it is learnt.Maoist chairman Prachanda, senior leaders Dr Baburam Bhattarai and Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’, four military commanders – Barsha Man Pun ‘Ananta’, Nanda Kishwor Pun ‘Pasang’, Chandra Dev Khanal and Prabhakar – and few other Maoist leaders were present during the discussion.

The meeting came two days after a landmark peace deal between the ruling SPA and the Maoists, agreeing to a number of political agendas and management of arms under the UN inspection.

As per the agreement, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would be settled in seven cantonments around the country along with three tributary cantonments around each main cantonment and the Maoist weapons will be stored under ‘single lock’ system with close inspection by UN teams while equal number of weapons of the Nepali Army will also be locked up.

According to the Maoists, the PLA is 35,000-strong and it has seven divisions.

Meanwhile, UN mission chief Martin told a press conference organised at the UN office in Kathmandu that his team would start trilateral negotiations from Friday to finalise the technicalities of management of arms and armies.

He said the government and the Maoists should come up with a detailed agreement to make easier the process of arms management.