Koraput:
An MLA of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, Jhina Hikaka, has been abducted by Maoists in Koraput district. The abduction comes 10 days after the Maoists took two Italians hostage from Kandhamal district. Sources have told NDTV that factional rivalry between Maoists is likely the reason behind the MLA's abduction.
Mr Hikaka, legislator from Laxmipur, was returning home from Koraput when more than 100 armed rebels stopped his vehicle near Toyaput at around 1 am on Saturday. While his personal security officer (PSO) and driver were allowed to leave, Mr Hikaka was taken away into the nearby forest by the ultras at gunpoint.
The PSO and the driver informed the Laxmipur police station about the incident, Koraput Superintendent of Police Avinash Kumar said, adding that steps have been initiated to ascertain the whereabouts of the legislator. "They have dug up the road to delay search and rescue operations," he added.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held an emergency meeting with the Director General of Police, the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary to assess the situation. "The MLA was abducted at around 1 am. No group has claimed responsibility for it so far, but it is suspected that it is being done by Maoists. Senior police officers are at the spot and I have asked two ministers to fly to the district as soon as possible today," Mr Patnaik said after the meeting.
Mr Patnaik has also spoken to Mr Hikaka's wife Kaushalya Manjhi.
"The Chief Minister has assured me that he will do everything to get my husband back. He told me that he is like a son to him," Ms Manjhi told NDTV.
She said that she got the news of her husband's abduction from the media.
Meanwhile, talks are on between rebel-nominated negotiators and government representatives to resolve the Italian hostage crisis. The negotiators - BD Sharma and Dandapani Mohanty - have also appealed to the Maoists to release the legislator without delay.
Bosusco Paolo, 54, and Claudio Colangelo, 61, were abducted from the border of Ganjam and communally sensitive Kandhamal district on March 14. The 13 demands the rebels have set for their release include a ban on the visit of tourists to the tribal areas; halt on anti-Maoist operations and release of several prisoners.
Sources say Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, who has been sidelined in the top echelons of the Maoists leadership for the past 18 months, may have engineered the abductions of the two Italians in an attempt to assert his hold over the area. They add that the larger Andhra-Orissa-Border Zonal Committee of the Maoists, active in the undivided Koraput district of Odisha and neighbouring Andhra areas (the original base of the Naxals) may have abducted the MLA in an attempt to put down Sabyasachi. This group is also suspected to be behind the killing of an assistant sub inspector in the Malkangiri district two days ago.