Maoists set fresh demands in Orissa

Bhubaneswar : Hostage crisis in Orissa deepened further as the Maoists have set new condition to the government for freedom of Malkangiri district collector R Vineel Krishna.

Hours after releasing junior engineer Pabitra Mohan Majhi on Wednesday, the Maoists said they want their five jailed leaders be released immediately in lieu of safe return of the collector.

Majhi was released after the Naveen Patnaik government conceded almost 14 demands of the rebels including release of their some incarcerated leaders.

The new demands were made in a letter sent through Majhi, who returned home on Wednesday evening. Among those leaders is Ganti Prasad, who was arrested in November and charged with sedition.

Prasad’s release tops the Maoists’ demand. The Maoists also want Padma, wife of a top leader, to be released. These demands come in addition to other demands that had earlier been put before the Orissa government.

The Maoists say they need Prasad and four others to be escorted to Malkangiri in exchange for collector Krishna.

Earlier, the Maoists chosen mediators said that Krishna would also be released by Wednesday.

But now the rebels wanted their leaders to be handed over to them in Malkangiri.

The mediators, including Professor G Haragopal, said the fresh demands were not acceptable to them at this juncture.

Haragopal said the new demands would complicate the matters.

Another mediator D Mohanty said the rebels now want the presence of the mediators at Malkangiri district, which was not possible and appealed to the Maoists to release as per agreement.

The collector was supposed to be released on Tuesday.

Released junior engineer Pabitra Mohan Majhi gave details saying the collector was safe at their custody.

Majhi was released at Chitrakonda area from where he and the IAS officer were abducted on Feb 16.