BHUBANESWAR: After keeping an uncomfortable silence for quite a while, the abductors of MLA Jhina Hikaka on Wednesday issued fresh threat.The Maoists reiterated their demand to release all 30 prisoners and, if not done, threatened to ‘take into custody’ all the BJD MLAs and MP of Koraput district.In a fresh press note, the Andhra Orissa Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC) spokesman Jagabandhu said Hikaka’s fate will be decided by a praja court.Stepping up pressure, the Maoists made it clear that the Government would have to release Cheda Bhusanam alias Ghasi or else BJD lawmakers would face the consequences. Hikaka, Raghuram Padal, Rabinarayan Nanda (all MLAs) and MP Jayaram Pangi are in the ‘hit list’ of the Maoists, spokesman of the AOBSZC Jagabandhu said. Once again ruling out mediation, he said the Government should immediately react and make its stand clear.The Maoist group has also criticised the Government for roping in the police by seeking their opinion on the demands made by them. The police is spreading canards saying that if the hardcore Maoists like Ghasi are released there would be law and order problem.Out of the 30 persons the Maoists asked for release in lieu of MLA Hikaka, only 3 are Maoists, he said. Referring to the Government’s announcement that it will free eight Maoists for the release of Hikaka, Jagabandhu said out of these only two _ Sunita and Arjun _ are Maoists. In the second demand list, the Maoists added five names.Only Ghasi is the Maoist among the five and the rest four are CMAS activists, he said.Criticising the Government for its reluctance to free CMAS advisor Gananath Patra, Jagabandhu said he should be on top of the list of those to be freed in the swap deal. ‘’On the one hand , the Government brands CMAS leaders like Nachika Linga as the most wanted Maoist and launched an operation to kill him, on the other hand it announced that it would negotiate with Nachika Linga”, he said.Claiming that even Koraput MP Jairam Pangi had said that the demands of the CMAS were genuine, Jagabandhu criticised the Government for its delay fulfilling them. In the aftermath of the then Malkangiri collector’s release 200 CMAS activists were put behind bars, he said.Jagababandhu said the Koraput Adivasi Suraksha Samiti is a front of the police created to take on the Maoists and CMAS. President of the Samiti Sirika Lidaki had released a list of persons killed by the Maoists, he said.
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