BHUBANESWAR: Two Orissa police officials, who were taken hostage by Maoists from R. Udayagiri town in Gajapti district on March 24, have urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to concede the abductors' demands to ensure their safe release.

The handwritten letter in Oriya said the Government should concede the Maoists' demands instead of trying to secure their release in police combing operations.The naxalites, who abducted Ranjan Mallick, officer-in-charge of the local police station, and Rabinarayan Sethi, jailor in the sub-jail, also killed three policemen and looted a large cache of arms from a police camp. They stormed the sub-jail and released 40 prisoners.

The letter, signed by the two officials on Wednesday, was handed over to a few presspersons here on Thursday morning by a naxal sympathiser. A senior police official, however, said the police were not aware of any letter.

The families of the abducted officials met the Chief Minister and urged him to secure their release.

The Maoists are demanding registration of cases against police and administration officials responsible for the killing of tribals at Kalinga Nagar and other places, release of their cadres from jails and an end to handing over the State's mineral resources to private companies.

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