Will release 3 cops by 8 pm today: Maoists

In a late night development on Saturday, the Maoists said they would free the three abducted policemen by 8 pm on Sunday.

Self-proclaimed Naxal spokesperson Avinash said in his recorded message that “they would hand over the three policemen to their families, not to police or any government official”. He claimed they had been in touch with the families of the policemen.

Asserting that since the government had been ruthless towards them, they would only trust the policemen’s families to hand over the abducted cops and then would discuss how to go about the government’s offer of talks, he added.

Bihar ADGP P K Thakur, however, said they had not received any intimation about the latest move of the Maoists and got to know about it only through the media.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar offered talks with the Maoists and assured them of not taking any legal action against their representative coming forward for the dialogue with the government.

“We want face-to-face talks, not through telephone as we want to be sure of the identity of the person on the other hand. As their telephone information (on SI Abhay Prasad Yadav) was misleading, we want one-on-one conversation,” Kumar said after an all-party meeting, attended by the RJD, BJP, Congress and LJP besides JD(U). RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and LJP president Ramvilas Paswan had sent their representatives to the meeting.

While not setting any pre-conditions for talks, the CM said Maoists should set free three policemen — SI Abhay Prasad Yadav and Rupesh Kumar Sinha, and BMP-10 Havildar Ehsan Khan.