No swap demand before killing police officer: HM

New Delhi, Oct 6: Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday, Oct 6, said that there was no demand from Naxals for any swap of prisoners for the police officer who was killed early this morning in Jharkhand.

Chidambaram said "If the Maoists have any demand they should place their demand. But cold blooded murder is simply not acceptable. I condemn it."

He said, "The (Jharkhand) DGP has told me that there was no demand for a swap of prisoners. Besides, we are governed by the rule of law and prisoners are under the custody of court. We cannot swap prisoners with those who are outside the purview of law, who take the law in their hands."

When asked whether this action of Maoists came ahead of a full fledged crackdown against Maoists planned by the Centre, he said "we have not announced anything, we have not said anything. These are media speculations.

"All we have said is that following our assessment that the Maoists threat is a grave threat to internal security, the centre will provide support to the state police forces to continue their operations against the Maoists," he added.

Police officer Francis Enduwar was killed by Maoists in Jharkhand. His body with beheaded head was found on the Jamshedpur-Ranchi highway around 9 am.

OneIndia News