Naxals to release five abducted jawans in Chhattisgarh

Jagdalpur, Feb 11 (PTI) Naxals said they will releasefive jawans of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force, who had beenabducted on January 25, by tonight.

The Maoists had kidnapped the jawans and a villager inNarayanpur district on the eve of the Republic Day.

CPI (Maoist) spokesperson Prabhat called up the localmediapersons and said the five -- Ramadhar Patel, RaghunandanDhruv, T Ekka, Ranjan Dubey and Manishankar would be releasedat Karimeta village in Abuzmad area tonight.

The abducted villager was freed later, while theNaxals, through the local media, had presented an 11-pointcharter of demands for the release of the jawans. One of theirdemands was restriction on Army activities in Narayanpur.

Social activist Swami Agnivesh, human rightscampaigner Gautam Navlakha and relatives of the abductedpersons would be present at Karimeta.

The Naxals also said they would not attack thesecurity forces till February 12 midnight and demanded areciprocal gesture from the forces.

Police sources said following this demand, patrollingin the forested areas has been stopped for the next 24 hours.