BHUBANESWAR: Maoist rebels have kidnapped two Italian tourists in eastern India, police said Sunday, in what is believed to be the first abduction of foreigners by the left-wing militants.
Television reports said the kidnappers issued 13 demands for the release of the Italians, including asking police to free an unspecified number of prisoners and end their drive to root out Maoists from the region.
The abduction occurred Wednesday in scenic, but poverty stricken, central Orissa, police said, one of a string of states where Maoist rebels have been waging a decades-long armed battle to overthrow the government.
“Maoists have abducted two Italian nationals from Daringbadi area of Kandhamal district,” regional police deputy inspector general Radha Krishna Sharma told AFP.
Officials identified the kidnapped Italians as Paolo Bosusco and Claudio Colangelo.
“I condemn the kidnapping. I urge the Maoists to release them on humanitarian grounds,” Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters in state capital Bhubaneswar.
Authorities were making strong efforts to secure the Italians' release. The pair were abducted from a spot 250 kilometres (150 miles) southwest of the state capital.
The Italian consul general in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, Joel Melchiori, arrived in Bhubaneswar Sunday and said he was “hopeful of an early solution”.
Bosusco had been living in the city of Puri in Orissa for a decade and was running an adventure tourism company, police said.
Sharma said the men asked police Monday to be allowed to travel around Kandhamal, but authorities denied permission, citing risks of Maoist violence.
“After that the two men and their Indian assistants were found roaming in these areas and on Wednesday, while they were taking a bath near a coffee plantation, Maoists abducted them,” Sharma said.
Sharma said the militants freed the two Indian hostages on Sunday morning unconditionally.
“This is the first time any foreigner has been kidnapped by Maoists,”Sharma said. An Italian foreign ministry spokesman said the men's families had been told of their abduction.
Italian media reported Bosusco, 54, was originally from Turin, while Colangelo, 61, was from Rome. In the past, the guerrillas have only kidnapped local officials and villagers, freeing some after negotiations with authorities, experts said. Some other people kidnapped by the Maoists have been found brutally killed.
Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi agreed this was the first time the rebels had kidnapped foreigners.
“It is not clear yet if this is a rogue operation by a maverick leader or if it is a strategic move by the central Maoist authority,” Sahni told AFP.
“Maoists have suffered tremendous attrition of leadership in recent years, so this presents an opportunity to get some of their leaders out of jail.”Indian police official Sharma confirmed the rebels had issued demands for the Italians' release but did not disclose their contents.
The Indian government has described the Maoist movement, which often targets police and soldiers with deadly roadside mine ambushes, as the country's biggest internal security threat.
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