Abducted Italians safe: Odisha government

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The two abducted Italians are safe and unharmed, the Odisha government claimed on Tuesday, a day after the Maoists named three negotiators to hold talks with the authorities on the six-day-long hostage crisis.

"We have information that the two Italians abducted by the Maoists are safe and unharmed," Chief Secretary B.K. Patnaik told reporters after the hostage crisis was reviewed at a high-level meeting here.

The names of Maoist-nominated negotiators are available with the government and that the matter is being examined threadbare before proceeding further, he said.

The Maoists had last night nominated Narayan Sanyal, politburo member of CPI (Maoist) currently lodged in Giridih jail, and civil rights activists Dandapani Mohanty and Biswapriya Kanungo to hold talks. However, Kanungo was reluctant to join the negotiation process.

Voicing doubts over the sincerity of the government towards meeting the 13 demands of the ultras, Kanungo said, "Experience shows that the state government has failed to keep its word in the past. It will be pointless to be part of talks if the government backtracks later."

Kanungo said he was reluctant to act as an interlocutor because the mediators who negotiated during abduction of the then Malkangiri collector R. Vineel Krishna in February last year had accused the government of failing to implement the demands it had accepted. “Moreover, no one had consulted me before nominating me as a negotiator,” he said.

While naming the negotiators, the Maoists announced a ceasefire and extended its deadline by a day for acceptance of its 13 demands including withdrawal of cases against the ultras and release of some rebels. The move came in response to the Odisha government's offer for talks to end the crisis.

The names of the negotiators chosen by Maoists had been conveyed through the media and now the state government's response was awaited, said Mohanty, convenor of Jana Adhikar Manch, who was among the three mediators engaged to resolve last year's Malkangiri abduction crisis.

While a senior official hoped a clear picture would emerge soon, the development was seen as a positive sign towards resolution of the crisis. Puri-based tour operator Paolo Bosusco and Italian tourist Claudio Colangelo were abducted while trekking in Kandhamal on March 14.