Hostage crisis: Talks resume after Maoist threat

Odisha government and Maoist-nominated mediators on Monday night resumed negotiations over his release, official sources said.

Bhubaneswar: Barely an hour after abductors
of Italian national Paolo Bosusco released an audio tape
threatening to take stringent action against the hostage,
Odisha government and Maoist-nominated mediators tonight
resumed negotiations over his release, official sources said.

While the government side is represented by Home
Secretary U N Behera, SC-ST Secretary S K Sarengi and
Panchayatiraj Secretary P K Jena, Maoists mediators Dandapani
Mohanti and B D Sharma participated in the negotiations.

Earlier in the evening, Odisha state organising
committee of CPI(Maoist) Sabyasachi Panda released an audio
tape demanding immediate release of seven Maoists from jail to
facilitate the end of the 19-day hostage crisis involving the
foreigner.
The Maoists had on March 25 released Claudio Colangelo,
another Italian national.

Cautioning the state government, Panda in the audio
tape demanded immediate release of seven persons, including
his wife Subhashree Das who is in jail for over a year.
The other persons whose release are demanded are Arati
Majhi, Kamala Kanta Sethi, Jonesh Pradhan, Sujatha, Suka
Nachika and Gananath Patra.
"The state government is adopting a dillydallying
approach to our demands and also planning an operation to
release the hostage. The government will be responsible if
something wrong happened to the Italian national," Panda said
in the audio tape.

PTI

Zee News App: Read latest news of India and world, bollywood news, business updates, cricket scores, etc. Download the Zee news app now to keep up with daily breaking news and live news event coverage.