Two Italian tourists kidnapped by CPI(Maoists) on March 14 from the dense forest bordering Kandhmal and Gajapati districts in Odisha remained untraced till date.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who had already held a series of meetings with high level police and civil officials yesterday, had appealed to the Maoists to release the two Italian tourists on humanitarian grounds but Chief Secretary Bijaya Pattnaik and Home Secretary U N Behera said so far the Maoists had not responded to the appeal of the Chief Minister and there was no communication from the rebels on the release of the two Italian tourists- Bosusco Paolo, a tour operator in Puri, and Claudio Colangelo.
The district administration and the state government officials were still clueless about the whereabouts of the Italian tourists.
Although the tourists alongwith two others, as attendants, were abducted by the Maoists on the morning of March 14, the matter came to the light only yesterday morning after the Odisha unit of the Maoist informed the local media about the abduction.
Both the attendants were released by the Maoists yesterday.
However, an audio CD and a fax from the Maoists received by the local newspapers and TV channels yesterday claimed the Italian duo was kidnapped as they were taking objectionable photographs of tribal women despite a ban by the state government. The CD and the fax also revealed a 13-point demands which were almost similar to the demands made by the left wing ultras when they abducted the Malkangiri District Collector R Veneel Krishna and a Junior Engineer in February last year.
Meanwhile, one of the attendants Santosh Maharana who had lodged an FIR with the Sea Beach police station soon after his safe arrival in Puri yesterday afternoon, said they had gone on an expedition to a dense forest under Daringibadi block of Kandhmal district. After having a bath in a stream they were preparing their morning breakfast when the armed Maoists arrived and blindfolded them and asked to follow them inside the forest.
It was only after trekking for nearly five kms inside the dense forest they found themselves surrounded by a large number of armed red rebels who later released both Santosh and Kartik and threatened them not to disclose the incident till they arrive at Puri.
Both the attendants, however, claimed that they were neither tortured nor ill treated by the Maoists during their captivity.
–Agencies