(Recasts with release)
By Jatindra Dash
NEW DELHI, April 12 (Reuters) – Indian Maoist rebels freed
an Italian tour guide on Thursday, almost a month after
capturing him in a remote part of the eastern state of Orissa in
what was believed to be the first kidnapping of a foreigner by
the leftist fighters.
Local television footage showed Paolo Bosusco with a
mediator who had travelled to a remote camp late on Wednesday
and the Italian foreign ministry said Indian authorities had
informed the ambassador of his release.
In response to rebel demands, the authorities have freed the
local Maoist leader’s wife from prison and promised to
facilitate the release of several imprisoned guerrillas.
Bosusco was seized in Orissa, along with another Italian,
Claudio Colangelo, on March 14 during a tourist visit to
indigenous tribes in the region. Colangelo was handed to a group
of reporters on March 25.
The fighters said they took the Italians because they were
taking photographs of tribeswomen bathing in a river, an
allegation Colangelo denied after his release.
Also known as Naxals, the rebels have fought for decades in
a wide swathe of central and eastern India, including many
resource-rich regions, where tensions run high between poor
farmers and industrial developers.
The government calls them India’s main internal security
threat and an obstacle to higher growth and more jobs in Asia’s
third-largest economy. Hundreds die annually in the conflict,
although levels of violence have fallen in recent years.
On March 24, another group of Maoists kidnapped Jhina
Hikaka, a state legislator, adding to the tension.
The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of millions
of landless people.
(Additional reporting by Catherine Hornby in ROME; Editing by
Frank Jack Daniel and Satarupa Bhattacharjya; Editing by Sanjeev
Miglani)
