Maoists abduct 2 Italian tourists, Odisha CM Naveen seeks their immediate release

Maoists abduct 2 Italian tourists, Odisha
CM Naveen seeks their immediate release

Sidharth Shankar Mishra , Bureau Chief ,These Days, Odisha
Bhubaneshwar/Kandhamal, March 18

I have incorporated what the PRO of the CM MR S.K.PANDA said about the facts and the deadline set. The deadline being this evening, I have to update the report accordingly later.


ODISHA NEWS:

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urges Maoists to release abducted 2 Italian tourists. He said this after presiding an emergency meeting to deal with abduction of Two Italian tourists .Two Italian tourists were abducted from the forests bordering Kandhamal and Ganjam districts of Odisha on Saturday evening.


He criticizes Maoists for abducting Italian tourists. He said the abduction tactics of Maoists not acceptable in civilized society. Patnaik said that the state government ready to discuss the matter with Maoists over this issue but the issue should be discussed within legal jurisdiction. He said that the state government informed about this incident to Union Home and External Affairs Ministries.


The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary BK Patnaik, Home Secretary UN Behera, and Police DG MM Praharaj.


It should be noted that Maoists abduct two Italian tourists in Kandhamal. Maoists put forward 13 demands for release of Italian tourists being the dead line today evening.Maoists have named the foreign Italian tourists as Bosusco Paolo and Claudio Colangelo.


An audio tape sent by Odisha's top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda confirms the abduction. The audio tape alleges that the two Italian tourists were taking objectionable photographs of tribals. The tape calls for the government to act on the 13 demands made a year ago by the Maoists in return of the release of the tourists. Reports say that Sunday is the last day of the deadline set by Maoists.

This is for the first time that foreign tourists are being targeted by Maoists in the state and comes a year after the collector of Malkangiri district in Odisha, R Vineel Krishna, was abducted in February 2011.


According to media sources the Maoists have issued a deadline to the state and Union governments to stop all combing operations in the state by Sunday evening and initiate a process of dialogue with them. Officials of the Tumudibandh police station in Kandhamal revealed that foreign tourists had approached them through a local NGO for permission to enter the interior areas, but were told not to go ahead. The police are trying to verify whether the Maoist claims are genuine or not.


Siddhartha Shankar mishra,
Bureau Chief, These Days,
Odisha