Maoists abduct five Jharkhand officials, free all

Ranchi, March 20: Maoist rebels abducted five government officials, including an additional district magistrate, at gun point from Latehar district in Jharkhand Saturday noon, but released them a few hours later, police said.

Latehar Superintendent of Police Kuldip Dewadi said more than five armed Communist Party of India-Maoist rebels abducted the five officials, including ADM Shrawan Soya, at gun point.

Others abducted were PWD officer H. Bhengra, assistant engineer Adish Sayru Ram, dairy officer Vinod Sinha and driver Kiran Singh from Bandhua village under Manika block of Lather district, the police official said.

However, the rebels freed the men after five hours.

"The Maoists were afraid of the vigorous anti-Naxal (Maoist) offensive launched by the police, and released all the abducted officials after five hours," Dewadi said later.

The prompt action of the police forced the rebels to release all the abducted men, he said.

The rebels Saturday also released four other workers, including junior engineer Ranjeet Kumar, in Simdega district whom they had kidnapped Thursday night. More than 15 Maoist rebels from the 'Hill Panther' group abducted the four men working for the Ram Rekha Dam and looted 35 mobile phones, Rs.2 lakh in cash and one gun from the site, said a police official.

Anti-Maoist operations are going on in five places in Jharkhand - West Singhbhum, East Singhbhum, Bokaro, Hazaribagh and Seraikela districts.

"An inter-state operation has been launched against the extremists simultaneously in seven-eight districts of Jharkhand and West Bengal," Neyaz Ahmad, Jharkhand director general of police, told reporters.

The operations are on mainly in the bordering districts of Jharkhand. The West Bengal police are mounting vigil along the border to check Maoist infiltration.

In Jharkhand, out of the 24 districts, Maoist rebels are active in 21. About 1,900 people, including 350 security personnel, have been killed in Maoist-related violence in the past few years.