New Delhi: Naxals holding collector of Sukma district, Alex Paul Menon, in Chhattisgarh, on Tuesday named three mediator for safe release of the collector.
Naxals named Prashant Bhushan, BD Sharma and Manish Kunjam as mediators for the talks. In a statement, the Naxals also termed Menon's health as critical and asked the mediators to bring medicines along with them.
Sources have told CNN-IBN that anti-Naxal operations in the Bastar district of the state have been suspended. April 25 is the deadline set by the Naxals for the government to meet their demands.
Sources say unmanned aerial vehicles have given the police vital clues about the collector's whereabouts. According to government officials, the Dandakaranya special zonal committee of CPI Maoist carried out the abduction. About 400 Naxals are guarding Menon and constantly changing locations, according to sources.
"We are trying our level best to secure his release. We have spoken to the Home Minister, the Odisha Chief Minister and the Andhra Pradesh governor," Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said.
A five-member committee headed by the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister is monitoring the situation and the government has suspended operations in the Bastar region. One of the demands of the Naxals was to stop Operation Green Hunt, but it is the health of the collector which is the biggest worry for the government. Union government sources say that a medical emergency can crop up if medicines don't reach the asthmatic Alex Menon.
Meanwhile, the Union Home Ministry has set the ball rolling for a unified hostage policy. The Union Home Secretary will write to the chief secretaries of the nine Naxal-affected states to come up with a standard operating procedure to deal with hostage situations created by the Naxals.
With additional information from PTI
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