Maoists: hostage killed
Women constables console the mother of policeman Abhay Yadav in Patna on Thursday as the Maoists’ deadline on the condition
One of the four Bihar policemen taken hostage by Maoists four days ago was killed by the rebels on Thursday as an unhurried state government groped for solutions before and beyond the two deadlines set by the Maoists.
Sub-inspector Abhay Yadav was killed by the Maoists at an undisclosed site in southern Bihar around the same time chief minister Nitish Kumar was attending a ceremony at Patna’s Maurya Hotel to release the “Bihar Development Report”. Avinash, a spokesman for the Maoists, said Yadav, officer in charge of Manikpur outpost in Lakhiserai district, was killed in the afternoon and his body would be handed over to the police late Thursday evening.
The cold-blooded murder of Yadav comes exactly a year after Maoists in Jharkhand beheaded special branch inspector Francis Induwar and threw his body close to a national highway near Ranchi after demanding the release of their arrested leaders in exchange for the officer.
Yadav was killed following a jan adalat (kangaroo court) after the Bihar government displayed no signs of beginning talks with the Maoists, who have been demanding the release of eight of their cadre from various jails in the state and the withdrawal of security forces from Lakhiserai, where an encounter between the police and Maoists led to the death of seven policemen on Sunday, in exchange for the four hostage policemen.
The Maoists set 10 am on Friday as the deadline for the safe release of the three policemen still in their custody — Rupesh Kumar Sinha, Lokus Tete and Mohammad Ehsaan — if the state government agreed to their demands. An unrepentant Avinash, speaking at length with local TV news channels, said: “We are ready for talks, but this government has not come forward so far. Our leader Azad was gunned down despite having been invited for talks. The government keeps its guns pointed at us.”
After the first deadline of 10 am Thursday expired, they planned to hold a jan adalat around noon to decide the fate of the four policemen taken hostage during Sunday’s encounter and then killed Yadav, said Avinash. He also admitted for the first time that Sunday’s encounter had cost only one Maoist life, that of their commander Ratan Yadav, and that no Maoist was injured.
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