Click to play videoPatna: The standoff between Maoists and the police in Bihar over the kidnapping of four policemen in Lakhisarai district of the state by the rebels continues. The deadline set by the Maoists for the release of the policemen in lieu of eight of their jailed comrades expired at 10 am Thursday morning. They are also demanding that Operation Green Hunt be called off.
The Maoists had earlier set the deadline of 4 pm Wednesday evening for the release of the abducted policemen.
The families of the abducted policemen have been pleading the Maoist to release them and after the expiry of Wednesday's deadline, the young daughter and wife of policeman Abhay Yadav held hostage by the rebels since Sunday feared the worst.
"Maoists are holding my father hostage. I plead with them to release him," said Abhay Yadav's daughter.
"No, I am not content with the advice of the government. I am scared about the fact that they won't leave his companions. They won't leave my husband. What will my family do?" asked Abhay Yadav's wife Rajni Yadav.
Bihar Police officials are enraged and demoralised. The fact that seven of their colleagues have been killed during Sunday's gunbattle and 14 other are injured has led them to protest against their officers. Even Lakhisarai Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar Singh was not spared with some policemen trying to assault him.
Families of the hostages have also pleaded before the Bihar DGP for help and also met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Thursday morning.
"There has been no progress yet. We will take every possible measure to save them. No one has approached us on their (Maoists) behalf," said Bihar DGP Neelmani.
The expiry of Thursday's deadline has put the state government in a fix. On one hand, the government has expedited its rescue operation to ensure safe release of the abducted policemen and on the other it is keeping its fingers crossed so that a debacle of this scale doesn't hit just before the elections.
Questions were also being raised about whether the local administration acted in time or not.
Finally, Bihar government chose to act.
Lakhirasai SP Ashok Kumar Singh and Deputy Superintendent of Police Ramadhar Singh have been transferred and an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the kin of those killed announced.
The government has also re-started the combing operations and Army helicopters are also being used. But there is no indication of any breakthrough.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, too, has nothing to add.
"This is for the state Chief Minister to take a call on. Nitish Kumar should do something. He is the man on the ground, he has all the facts. We will support him in whatever decision he takes. But he has not approached us," Chidambaram replied when asked about the hostage crisis in Bihar during a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.
It is a tough choice for the state government: should it risk the lives of four of its men? Or should it release eight Maoists?
When West Bengal was faced with a similar situation, the state government preferred to release 14 tribal women lodged in the jails. Time has already run out for the four men.
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