Bhubaneswar:
The Maoists, who kidnapped R Vineel Krishna, the Collector of Orissa's Malkangiri district and junior engineer Pavitra Majhi on Wednesday, have extended their deadline.
On Thursday, they sent a list of seven demands to the Naveen Patnaik government. The Maoists say they will release the two kidnapped officials if Central forces are withdrawn from Malkangiri. They are also demanding an end to Operation Greenhunt and the release of arrested Maoists.
NDTV has learnt that there may be talks with the Maoists through mediators as early as Sunday (February 20) to negotiate the release of Krishna and the junior engineer.
A four-page letter with demands of the Maoist was forwarded to the media late on Thursday night. The Maoists said in the letter that Vineel Krishna has been a part of the 'repressive regime' in Orissa, and is therefore, not above the board despite claims that he was working for the poor.
In their letter, the Maoists have also named three people as mediators, including Professor Hargopal of Hyderabad's Central University. Speaking to NDTV, Professor Hargopal appealed to the Maoists to give more time for possible negotiations and not harm the Collector. "My first appeal to the Maoists is that the deadline has to be extended because this is too short a time for the complexity and number of demands they've put forward. I will also appeal that they should not harm him because loss of life on either side is always very tragic," said Hargopal.
In a recorded audio message to NDTV, Sabyasachi Panda who is the secretary of the CPI(Maoist) in Orissa, has said that if the state government fails to release 232 social workers and doesn't produce the arrested Maoists and Maoist sympathisers before court, the Maoists will not be responsible for any harm caused to the kidnapped Collector and junior engineer.
The mother of the junior engineer Pavitra Majhi has, meanwhile, made an appeal to the Maoists for the safe release of her son. "His father left us when the kids were very young. I request you to release my kid as without him we have no life. He is my eldest son and the only earning man in the family. I have got two small children to look after. Please, I request you to release the collector and my son," she said.
Krishna was kidnapped by Maoists on Thursday when he was returning after an interaction programme in Gumma block of tribal-dominated Malkangiri district. The Maoists then set a 48-hour deadline for the Central forces to be withdrawn from the district and their jailed cadres released. This is the first time that the Maoists have kidnapped an IAS officer, indicating a possible change of strategy to now target senior government officers.
Thirty-year-old Vineel Krishna, an IIT-Madras graduate, joined Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 2005. In the last 16 months of his posting in Malkangiri, Krishna was trying to win over the tribals through various development programmes.
The abduction drew widespread condemnation as thousands of people took out processions in several parts of Orissa and appealed for the release of the two captives on Thursday. (
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