Chhattisgarh, October 01: The 12-day-long hostage drama ends with the Naxals releasing four policemen whom they’d taken hostage. They were handed over to local mediapersons on Wednesday night inside the Bijapur forests and taken to the Dantewada police station.
“All four cops have been freed and handed over to local mediapersons who had been mediating for their release”, Dantewada district’s Senior Superintendent of Police S.R.P. Kalluri said.
He said Assistant Sub-inspector Sukhram Bhagat and Constables B Toppo, Narendra Bhosle and Subhash Patre were released deep inside a forest in Bijapur at around 8:30 PM and were escorted back by the journalists to his office.
In all seven policemen had been abducted by Maoists from Bijapur district, which borders Andhra Pradesh, on September 19th. Out of the seven policemen three were killed by the Naxals. The Maoists, among other things, had demanded that the government halt Operation Green Hunt, free jailed Naxal cadres, check police atrocities and initiate peace talks as conditions for setting the abducted cops free.
Senior officials said that mediapersons and social activists had mediated in the talks with the ultras for the safe release of the policemen.
——-PTI