Outlaws want law to ‘rescue’ their cadres

A Communist Party of India (Maoist) front organisation has urged the release of about 20 Maoists who were abducted by a rival splinter group after killing 10 local Maoist leaders in Jharkhand’s Chatra district this week.

A Communist Party of India (Maoist) front organisation has urged the release of about 20 Maoists who were abducted by a rival splinter group after killing 10 local Maoist leaders in Jharkhand’s Chatra district this week.

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In a statement, the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) also claimed that the 10 Maoist cadres killed in Jharkhand had been drugged before being shot in cold blood by rival splinter group, Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) who were helped by the security forces. The Home Ministry calls the RDF a front organisation of the CPI (Maoists).

RDF president Varavara Rao and general secretary Rajkishore sought a judicial inquiry into the killing of Maoist cadre.

“We also believe that the lives of the twenty people kidnapped by the TPC are in danger. Whether they are presently in the custody of the TPC or the police, all measures must be taken to save their lives,” Rao said.

The Maoist sympathiser questioned the claims that two TPC cadres were killed in the gunfight, pointing it was difficult to believe that 10 members in a large team of 30-odd armed Maoists fell in a gun battle while “none of the TPC goons or the armed forces engaging them” survived without any casualty.