Raipur:
The families of four policemen, who were reportedly abducted by Maoists in Chhattisgarh on September 19, travelled from Chhattisgarh to Hyderabad on Monday, to appeal to Maoist sympathisers to mediate on their behalf.
Manjubala has fainted. The traumatic wait for a week now of not knowing whether her husband will return alive has taken its toll.
"I appeal to my Naxal brothers to release my husband. I will not send him back to the police force. We will do some farming in the village and survive," said Manjubala, wife of one of the kidnapped policemen, Subash Patre.
Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao did not meet the families but appealed to the Maoists in Chhattisgarh to release the abducted policemen unconditionally.
"Let us continue the demand that within 48 hours, Greenhunt Operations should stop but let us not stake the lives of the four jawans for that. Let us not put this as a counter to that," Rao said.
The Chhattisgarh police realised seven of its men had gone missing only when the bodies of three of them were found. Pamphlets believed to have been left by Maoists had set a 48-hour deadline demanding withdrawal of Operation Greenhunt and release of political prisoners.
"There are no specific demands in the pamphlets, those are just general demands like stop operation Greenhunt, secondly stop police torture and the third thing was that the villagers around Bhopal-Patna, who have been arrested in false cases should be released," said Vivekananda Sinha, DIG, Chhattisgarh.
Observers say the security forces in Chhattisgarh, specially the lower cadres, have felt like sitting ducks in the past and morale is low. The threat of abduction and killing has only made matters worse.