BHOPAL: Even as the second round of talks between interlocutors was set to begin at Raipur, outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) circulated a three page note early on Friday morning, listing in detail their perception about the problems being faced by the tribals and incidents of alleged atrocities by the security forces in tribal Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. A three page note "why we detained the collector", issued by CPI...

The man selected by the Maoist captors of Chhattisgarh collector Alex Paul Menon to mediate with the government today said the abduction was part of a “war” over resources but voiced hope that the officer would be freed. “The abduction is situational, it depends on what is happening there,” B.D. Sharma said, drawing attention to what the rebels brand as state-sponsored atrocities on tribals. The comments, four days after the rebels snatched...

-The Hindu The kidnap of a District Collector in Chhattisgarh even as the Odisha hostage crisis remains unresolved suggests the Maoists are looking at soft ways of escalating their ongoing war against the Indian state. This targeting of non-combatants, even if they are officials or representatives of the state, must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. That it directly refutes the Maoist claim to be battling for a higher purpose...

The Chhattisgarh government does not yet know if the recorded message from Maoists on using their hostage Alex Paul Menon, a young bureaucrat, as a bargaining chip to get eight of their jailed comrades released, is authentic or not. A Maoist gang abducted Menon, a 32-year-old IAS officer of batch 2006, on Saturday evening at gunpoint from Manjhipara in Sukma, where he is the district collector, killing two guards who resisted...

-IANS RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh government has virtually called a halt to its anti-Maoist offensive till Sukma District Collector Alex Paul Menon is released from captivity, official sources said Monday. "The whole focus is now to secure the safe and early release of Alex Paul Menon. The anti-Maoist operation issue can follow later on," a senior official at the police headquarters here told. The Maoists have demanded freeze on Operation Green Hunt against them...