Imphal, December 16: The Army will not violate its ceasefire with NSCN(IM) and is hopeful of a positive outcome to the Centre's negotiations with the outfit, a senior army official said today. "At no stage of the negotiations will the Indian Army abrogate the ceasefire.

We carried the process on for the past eight years.

We are hopeful of a peaceful solution," GOC-in-C Eastern Command, Lt Gen Arvind Sharma told reporters here when asked about reports of NSCN(IM) blaming the armed forces for �turbulence' in the peace process.

The second round of talks between the Centre and NSCN(IM) are scheduled to begin today at Bangkok.

On a possible date by which the Naga problem could be settled, Sharma said, "what we need now is patience.

Let us not talk about a deadline now." Sharma was talking to the media after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vijay Smarak here on the occasion of �Victory Day' commemorating India's victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan.

For the first time, 61 Bangladeshi �Mukti Yoddhas' (freedom fighters) were also present on the occasion.

Regarding the situation in Assam's Karbi Anglong which witnessed ethnic violence in the past couple of weeks, Sharma said the Army has been deployed there and the number of incidents had come down.

"We are at it.

We hope for an early solution," he said.

Asked whether the Army was taking up building of infrastructure along the Indo-China border after the opening of a railway line from Gormo to Lhasa in Tibet, he said, "not only the railway line, we take into consideration all developments.