No solution in sight,Maoists may extend deadline

No solution appears forthcoming to secure the release of abducted Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon. Wednesday was his fifth night in captivity. The deadline given by the CPI(Maoist),which was to expire on Wednesday,is reported to have been extended. The Maoists had threatened that if their demands are not fulfilled,Menon’s fate will be decided in a people’s court.

The government did not seem to be taking any concrete step to reach out to the Maoists,except for announcing two retired chief secretaries as its negotiators and holding meetings. The two government negotiators,former Chhattisgarh chief secretary S K Mishra and former Madhya Pradesh chief secretary Nirmala Buch,arrived in Raipur on Wednesday and held meetings with senior government officials and ministers to resolve the crisis. A Cabinet sub-committee,headed by Chief Minister Raman Singh,held a late evening meeting,but failed to come up with a roadmap.

Tribal leader Manish Kunjam,who had left on Tuesday with medicines for Menon,is still inside the Dandkaranya forests. He was named by the Maoists as their negotiator,but had rejected the offer saying he does not believe in their methods.

Story continues below this ad

The two other mediators named by the Maoists,Professor G Haragopal and former Bastar collector B D Sharma,will reach Raipur on Thursday. Both have expressed their willingness to mediate on behalf of the Maoists,but how far the state government is willing to agree to their demands is yet to be seen. The government,so far,has not given any signal that it is ready to release the Maoists,as demanded.

While Haragopal was the mediator in Malkangiri Collector R Vineel Krishna’s case last year,Sharma acted in similar capacity during the recent abduction of two Italian tourists. Amid all this,Sukma has renewed its appeal to the Maoists to release its Collector.