Bhubaneswar:
It's the eighth day since two Italian nationals, Paolo Bosusco and Claudio Colangelo, were abducted by the Maoists in Odisha's Kandhamal district. However, so far the state police have no clues on the whereabouts of the two foreign nationals.
And what is more worrying is that the proposal for talks between Maoists and the state government is yet to materialise. After two interlocutors named by the Maoists backed out, there is no clarity over who would finally represent the Maoists in the proposed talks.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik once again urged the Maoists to start the dialogue process. "I urge the Maoists again to give up as soon as possible the two Italian hostages and I request them to choose the two alternative negotiators required from their side so that negotiations and discussions can start immediately," he said.
The Odisha government had said yesterday that the two abducted Italians were "safe", as the ultras extended the deadline for meeting their list of demands by another day.
"We have information that the two Italians abducted by the Maoists are safe and unharmed," Chief Secretary B K Patnaik told reporters after the hostage crisis was reviewed at a high-level meeting.
"The deadline is extended by another 24 hours," a senior party leader of the Odisha State Organising Committee of Maoists told a private television channel on its 13-point demand.
The Italians - Puri-based tour operator Paolo Bosusco and tourist Claudio Colangelo - were abducted while trekking in Kandhamal district on March 14.
The Maoists had nominated CPM politburo member Narayan Sanyal, currently lodged in Giridih jail, and civil rights activists Dandapani Mohanty and Biswapriya Kanungo as negotiators.
However, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik voiced objection to Sanyal's choice as he was a undergoing a life sentence and jail terms for other offences, while Kanungo himself objected to taking part in the parleys.
Following this, the Maoists named civil rights activist Prafulla Samantaray and social activist and retired bureaucrat B D Sharma as the new negotiators.
Samataray, has, however also objected to being named negotiator by the Maoists.
"I doubt whether the government will agree to my nomination and I have no faith in the state government," he said.
Chief Minister Patnaik had announced that three negotiators to represent the state government would be Principal Secretary (Home Department), U N Behera; Commissioner-cum-Secretary (Panchayatiraj Department), P K Jena and Secretary in Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Department, S K Sarangi.
Earlier, voicing doubts over the sincerity of the government in meeting the 13 demands of the ultras, Kanungo said, "Experience shows that the state government has failed to keep its word in the past. It will be pointless to be part of talks if the government backtracks later."
Kanungo said he was reluctant to act as interlocutor because the mediators who negotiated during abduction of Malkangiri Collector R Vineel Krishna in February last year had accused the government of failing to implement the demands.
The hostage crisis also figured in Odisha Assembly for the second day yesterday with Opposition Congress alleging failure of the intelligence system as the incident came to light through the media four days after the foreigners were abducted by Maoists.