Just hours before the Maoists’ deadline for releasing the four abducted policemen passed on Wednesday, the Bihar police suspended their combined search and raid operations seeking release of the hapless cops in Lakhiserai and asked the Maoists to come out for talks. The Maoists responded by extending their deadline till 10 am on Thursday.
The Bihar police authorities, unwilling to bend before the Maoists who have been demanding the release of eight of their cadres and withdrawal of security forces from Sunday’s encounter site in Lakhiserai district, decided to open a channel for negotiation as the rebels’ deadline of 4 pm approached.
With no trace of the four policemen in the Maoists’ custody for over 36 hours, the search operations aided by a helicopter were asked to be put on hold in a sort of temporary ceasefire, said sources. Lakhiserai SP Ashok Kumar Singh, who is being partly blamed for the botched encounter with the Left-wing rebels that led to the death of seven policemen on Sunday, was transferred out and Ranjit Kumar Mishra, a younger officer currently posted as the city SP in Darbhanga, was asked to join in Lakhiserai immediately. The Lakhiserai DSP was also replaced by Rajbansh Singh, currently posted as DSP (Rail) in Patna.
“They (the rebels) must come forward for talks with us. We cannot talk in the airs or through the media,” said DGP Neelmani. He declined to speak on the ongoing search operations, but sources in Lakhiserai confirmed that all combing operations were put on hold and that the outgoing SP left the search team midway soon after his transfer order was issued around noon.
The Maoists’ spokesman, Avinash, told Patna-based news channels earlier on Wednesday that the four policemen, a sub-inspector and three constables, were “fine and not tied to ropes’ in their custody at an undisclosed location. “We do not want to kill anybody. The government must consider our demands instead of sitting idle. We tried to speak to the chief minister over phone yesterday but failed,” said Avinash.
Distraught relatives of the four hostage policemen on Wednesday came to met chief minister Nitish Kumar, who assured them of his government’s best efforts to ensure their safe release. The RJD, Bihar’s main Opposition party, criticised Kumar for his “criminal silence” during this crisis.