Maoists rebels, who have abducted two Italian tourists in Odisha, Tuesday extended the deadline for the state government’s acceptance of their demands to Wednesday evening while suggesting two more names as interlocutors.
Of the three names originally suggested by the Maoists, one had refused to serve while Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik refused to accept another of the choices, and urged the abductors to suggest an alternative.
Maoists had late Monday announced three names — senior rebel leader Narayan Sanyal, social activist Dandapani Mohanty and human rights activist and lawyer Biswapriya Kanungo to mediate on their behalf.
While Sanyal is lodged in a jail in Jharkhand, Kanungo had expressed his unwillingness to represent the Maoists.
“It was learnt that Narayan Sanyal had been convicted for life imprisonment. Therefore, it is not possible to accept him as a mediator in the discussion process,” Patnaik told reporters.
“I learnt from media reports that Biswapriya Kanungo is not willing to participate in the discussions as a representative of the CPI (Communist Party of India)-Maoist,” said Patnaik, adding he has no objection to Mohanty’s participation.
Urging the rebels to suggest as soon as possible two alternative names, he said state Panchayati Raj Secretary P.K. Jena, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Secretary Santosh Sarangi and Home Secretary U.N. Behera will be the government representatives in the negotiation process.
Minutes after chief minister’s response, the Maoists announced that they had extended their deadline for the government to respond to their offer by another 24 hours to March 21 evening.
Rebel leader ‘Sunil’, in a telephonic message to a local television channel, also announced the name of human rights activist Prafulla Samontra and tribal expert B.D. Sharma as alternatives to Kanungo and Sanyal.
Italians Bosusco Paolo and Claudio Colangelo were abducted by Maoists on the morning of March 14 from Kandhamal district.
The two abducted Italians are safe and unharmed, the Odisha government claimed on Tuesday, a day after the Maoists named three negotiators to hold talks with the authorities on the six-day-long hostage crisis.
“We have information that the two Italians abducted by the Maoists are safe and unharmed,” Chief Secretary BK Patnaik told reporters after the hostage crisis was reviewed at a high-level meeting here.
The names of Maoist-nominated negotiators are available with the government and that the matter is being examined threadbare before proceeding further, he said.
The Maoists had last night nominated Narayan Sanyal, politburo member of CPI (Maoist) currently lodged in Giridih jail, and civil rights activists Dandapani Mohanty and Biswapriya Kanungo to hold talks.
However, Kanungo was reluctant to join the negotiation process.
Voicing doubts over the sincerity of the government towards 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 an interlocutor because the mediators who negotiated during abduction of the then Malkangiri collector R Vineel Krishna in February last year had accused the government of failing to implement the demands it had acce
THEY ARE SAFE :
The abductors, who want the government to fulfill 13 demands, had earlier given a deadline of Tuesday evening.