C’garh home minister hints govt in talks with Maoists

Senior civil and police officials are tight-lipped over the Home minister’s hint on the said talks. Besides,there is no independent confirmation so far whether feelers had already established contact with abductors,who have set a 48-hour deadline for accepting their demands.

Meanwhile Naxal ideologue,revolutionary writer and poet Varavara Rao has appealed to the Maoists to release the abducted policemen on humanitarian grounds saying all of them belonged to very poor families. The Opposition Congress demanded an all-party meeting to discuss the issue saying it was a ‘sensitive matter’ which has to be dealt with carefully.

Seven policemen had gone missing in the afternoon of September 19 between Bhopalpattanam and Badrakali ― a hyper sensitive area in the Naxa-affected Bijapur district. Later,bodies of two constables and a special police officer (SPO) were found in the forests of Depla few days later while there were no clues about the other missing policemen.

After a week-long silence,Maoists dropped handwritten leaflets near Cherpalli village at Bhopalpattanam late Sunday evening,setting a 48-hour deadline for accepting their demands,including stopping Operation Green Hunt,releasing villagers arrested by the police,a judicial probe into fake encounters and starting peace talks.

Assistant sub-inspector Sukhram Bhagat,constables B Toppo,Narendra Bhosle and Subhash Ratre were believed to be in the custody of the rebels. It is now suspected that another constable Dularam Sodi ― who went missing on September 13 while on his way for treatment ― and a woman Kusum Jyoti,a relative of a slain SPO,were also in Naxal captivity.

Bijapur district superintendent of police R N Das said the police was doing its best to track down the Maoists,who are said to be shifting their hostages from one place to another in the dense forests on the state’s border with neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Search operations in the forests have been stepped up for rescuing the abducted policemen.

Meanwhile,family members of all abducted policemen have appealed to the Maoists to release them,assuring them that all of them would quit the police force when released. Family members and children of few abducted policemen have travelled all the way from Jashpur district in North Chhattisgarh to district headquarters at Bijapur,where they are camping for the last one week.

Kanwar also said he has directed senior police officers to verify the letter of demand received from Naxals since it reached the government through the local on media on Sunday.

“They have set a deadline of 48 hours for the state government to comply with their demands,” the minister said.

“The deadline given is not sufficient,as the decision of calling back paramilitary forces from Naxal areas and releasing of Naxals from jails cannot be taken in hurry,” Kanwar said,adding the government was thinking over the demands.

The deadline ends tomorrow night. He said the state government never blocked negotiations with Naxals but talks can never be held until they stop violence.