Bhubaneswar, July 09: The Orissa Police is yet to trace an assistant sub-inspector taken hostage by Maoists during an attack on a police station in Keonjhar district.
“We are keeping a close watch (on the developments),” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters here.
Senior police officers are in Daitari area from where the Maoists had kidnapped the ASI, he said.
ASI Umesh Chandra Marandi was taken hostage during an attack on Daitari police station on Wednesday night, a Maoist leader had claimed yesterday.
Meanwhile, Orissa’s elite anti-Naxalite force, the Special Operations Group (SOG) and the police continued combing operation in forests of Keonjhar to trace Marandi.
The missing ASI’s family have appealed to the Maoists to free the ASI, while the ultras have demanded release of 68 of their cadres and stopping of police action in Kalinga Nagar industrial complex in return of Marandi’s freedom.
–Agencies