Chhattisgarh hostage crisis: Mediators agree on some points

Apr 30, 2012 |

Chhattisgarh

Tags:

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said on Monday that there was some progress in the talks with Maoists for the release of abducted Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon, with both sides agreeing on some points.

The hostage crisis involving the 32-year-old IAS officer entered the tenth day on Monday.

The Chief Minister told reporters here that the fourth round of talks between the government-appointed mediators and those on the Maoists' side was underway, and he was hoping for an early resolution, with both sides finding ‘agreement’ on certain points.

The interlocutors from the Maoists side had met the ultras two days ago, and they conveyed the Maoists' stand to the government, Singh said.

Government mediators Nirmala Buch and S.K. Mishra briefed the sub-committee of Chhattisgarh cabinet, which is dealing with the crisis on the Maoists' demands, he said.

Soon a solution would emerge and the sub-committee would take the "final decision", he added.

Menon was abducted by the Maoists on April 21. The ultras have demanded release of 17 of their jailed leaders, among other things, for his release.

Maoists-side mediators, B.D. Sharma and Professor G.Hargopal, met the ultras on Saturday in the Tadmetla forests, and briefed them about the talks. The collector was said to be in a ‘good health’.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/147635" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-19c5e9060a2ac3c0744f1fc837b06a45" value="form-19c5e9060a2ac3c0744f1fc837b06a45" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86854259" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>