Nepal Army chief Chhattraman Singh Gurung has said the Nepal Army should make concrete contribution to bring the peace process to a positive conclusion on the basis of the Interim Constitution, seven-point agreement and other political understandings of the past.

He, however, emphasised that the army's norms and values must be kept intact while integrating the Maoist combatants.

"Even as the integration of the combatants is a political matter, the Nepal Army should make concrete contribution to bring the peace process to a positive conclusion as guided by the Interim Constitution-2063, seven-point agreement and other agreements of the past while keeping the army's norms and values intact," CoAS Gurung said, addressing the closing ceremony of the two-day conference of the heads of NA divisions at the army headquarters on Friday.

Heads of all six divisions and other Generals and senior officials of the Defence Ministry participated in the conference.

According to a press statement issued by the NA's Department of Public Relations, the division heads have agreed that integration of the combatants should be carried out on the basis of the seven-point agreement and on individual level. According to them, the ranks of those to be integrated should be determined in line with the established norms of the NA.

They concluded that the professionalism of the army should not be compromised in the integration process.

Few days earlier, CoAS Gurung had presented a proposal to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai in which he mentioned that the NA was ready to maintain flexibility in terms of age, marital status and educational qualifications while integrating 6500 combatants.

He also proposed to substantially reduce the duration of the training and bridge course for the combatants. nepalnews.com