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Nitish offers safe passage to Maoists for dialogue
Rebels feel the heat, offer to free hostages today
Sanjay Singh
Tribune News Service

Patna, September 4
Thirty-six hours after the expiry of the Maoists’ second deadline, the fate of the three abducted policemen held captive by the rebels hung in balance on Saturday evening. An all-party meeting convened by the Chief Minister here, however, issued an appeal to the Maoists to spare the hostages.

The Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, told newsmen that his government was ready to hold parleys with the Maoists and assured their representatives safe passage. “If they want to come for talks, we are prepared to ensure that there would be no police action against them and they would be allowed to leave safely after the talks,” he offered.

While all eyes remain riveted on local TV channels, which have been used by the Maoists to communicate their messages so far, for the rebels’ reaction, they were unlikely to accept the offer. And sure enough, within hours of the Chief Minister announcing his offer, the self-styled Maoist spokesman Avinash did call up TV channels and agencies to claim that the Maoist ‘Central Committee’ had turned down the offer for talks. But the hostages would be freed nevertheless, he informed, some time on Sunday. Which would mean that the Maoists were finding it difficult to remain in hiding with police breathing down their neck.

The Maoists have actually been demanding the release of eight of their comrades, two of them said to be Area Commanders, from prison, threatening to kill the hostages if their demand is not met.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was conspicuous by his absence at the all-party meeting. But several RJD leaders turned up to compensate for him. Details of the deliberation were sketchy as the CM harped on his offer for safe passage alone.

While Nitish Kumar deftly evaded questions on whether the government would consider releasing the prisoners or to call off the intense combing operation that is going on in the Lakhisarai-Jamui-Munger areas, the Maoists seem to be feeling the heat. According to unconfirmed reports, several Maoists or Maoist sympathisers are said to have walked into the trap laid by the police on Saturday. While officials remained tight-lipped, media reports maintained that the mastermind of the Maoist action last Sunday was among those who were arrested today.

While the Bihar government has sought the services of three more helicopters to help in the combing operation, the security personnel remained clueless for the sixth day about the location of the hideouts. The combing operation, however, could have forced the Maoists to cross into the neighbouring state of Jharkhand.

Meanwhile the body of Lucas Tete, the Assistant Sub Inspector, shot dead by the Maoists presumably when he was asleep, was taken to his native village in Simdega, five hours’ drive from Ranchi, and cremated with full police honours. Tete was clad in a vest and lungi , which reinforced the suspicion that he was shot dead in his sleep.

Although Tete’s body was found after the Maoist deadline expired at 11 am on Friday, the post-mortem revealed that the policeman was killed in the early morning.

A spokesman of the Maoists called up a TV channel and a news agency to explain why the name of the hostage killed, as claimed by him earlier, was that of a different person. It was because of a communication gap between him and his comrades hiding in the jungle, he said.

l The self-styled Maoist spokesman Avinash did call up TV channels and agencies to claim that the Maoist ‘Central Committee’ had turned down the offer for talks.

l Lalu Prasad Yadav was conspicuous by his absence at the all-party meeting.