Naxals release one of two Italian hostages

One of the two Italians abducted by Naxal guerrillas 11 days earlier in this state was freed by his captors this afternoon. This came a day after interlocutors trying to facilitate talks between the government and the Left extremists had suspended the effort.

CPI (Maoist) leader Sabyasachi Panda handed over the Italian, a tourist named Claudio Colangelo, to a group of three journalists at a place in Kandhamal district, close to its border with Ganjam district, from where they had abducted the two, with their two Indian assistants, on March 14.

“If you are free, it’s a nice life, and if you are not, it is bad because the jungle is a free place,” Colangelo told a group of journalists soon after his release. He said he’d like to revisit Orissa but not its jungles, home to the Naxals, a view that could jeopardise the state government’s effort to promote eco-tourism. Later, the released traveller was handed to the Ganjam police, for further interrogation and other formalities.

The rebels are adamant about their demands. They have said they’d release the other Italian captive once the state government fulfills these, including a halt to all anti-Naxal operations and waiving ‘false charges” against some jailed tribal leaders . The other Italian, Paolo Basusco, has had a tribal-tourism and trekking tour firm in Puri for the past 20 years.

The government had been discussing the issues with two Naxal-nominated negotiators until yesterday, when the talks ended abruptly after the rebels abducted an MLA of the ruling Biju Janata Dal from his Laxmipur constituency in Koraput district. They had also killed a police official on Thursday, in Malkangiri district.

The state government had then asked the Naxals to name a third interlocutor, sensing differences of opinion within the extremist group.

But Naxal leader Panda has said he was happy with the talks between the interlocutors and the government nominees and expected these to continue. Dandapani Mohanty, one of the two Naxal-named negotiators, said a decision on resuming negotiations would be taken after discussion with the journalists who’d met Panda.