ANANTAPUR: The district administration and the families of the two revenue employees abducted by the CPI (Maoist) on Wednesday night heaved a sigh of relief as they were released safely late on Friday night.

They were released on the NH-7, about 20 km away from Penukonda, by the Penukonda dalam. Penukonda Revenue Divisional Officer S.V. Nageswara Rao rushed to the spot immediately after receiving a phone call from Penukonda revenue inspector Jamsheer Ahmed and Venkatareddypalli village secretary P.D. Narasimhulu.

However, the safe release of the two abducted employees was ensured only after the district police called off all its combing operations. It was for the first time that the district administration including the police yielded to the Maoists' demand to end all combing operations in lieu of the safe release of the abducted employees.

Earlier in the night, District Collector Y.V. Anuradha asked Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar Jain to stop all combing operations carried out against the movements of Maoists.

Phone call

This followed after Penukonda MRO Rajasekhar received a phone call in the name of Rammohan Reddy, commander of Penukonda dalam, who had abducted the revenue employees, at around 6 p.m. on Friday.

The caller told the MRO that the abducted employees were safe in their custody and demanded all district employees should represent to the Collector to stop all combing operations.

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