Students protest against abduction of two Orissa official by Maoists

New Delhi, Feb 20(ANI): Students from Orissa on Sunday protested against the abduction of Malkangiri District Collector R.V. Krishna and junior engineer Pabitra Majhi by Maoist rebels.

The protest was held in the national capital under the aegis of the Oriya Students Union of Delhi (OSUD).

OSUD President Tejeshwar Parida clearly outlined the aims of the protest meet.

"Today we are demanding and appealing to the Maoists and the supporters of Maoists that release R. Vileen Krishna, who was abducted a few days back along with a tribal junior engineer, Pabitra Majhi because they were innocent people and very hard working and dynamic. They were also doing some pro-people activities there. So we are demanding that they be released immediately without any condition," Parida said.

The protestors also demanded that the Maoists should scrap their precondition of the release of their jailed comrades for the release of the two officials.

"We are also demanding that the Government should ask the Maoists that they should not have any precondition as that of releasing the 600-700 Maoists from jail," Parida said.

Krishna, who was on his way back after attending a health camp in Chitrakonda, has been missing since February 16.

The Maoists had earlier sent a note through a junior engineer accompanying Krishna demanding immediate halt to Operation Green Hunt and release of jailed Maoists.

The Maoists want two of their jailed leaders - Ghanti Prasadam and Sriramulu Srinivas - to represent the party in the negotiation process. (ANI)