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Human Rights activist Dr. Binayak Sen on Saturday reiterated his call for unconditional release of Chhattisgarh’s abducted Sukma District Collector Alex Paul Menon. Dr. Sen, who has been working in the tribal belt of Chhattisgarh for the past many years also appealed to the Maoists to resume peace talks with the government. “Alex Menon should be released immediately with no pre-conditions and I express sorrow at the death of the two security personnel, who were guarding Mr Menon, so I have already issued that statement and I stand by the same,” said Dr. Sen. In an audacious operation, Maoist rebels abducted Menon, an IAS officer of 2006 batch, from the middle of a meeting with villagers from Majhipara village in Keralapal area of the Naxal-infected district last week. Menon, who is the first collector of the newly-created Sukma District, was known to be proactive in undertaking development work in the backward region. The Naxals have demanded the release of eight colleagues: Markam Gopanna alias Satyam Reddy, Nirmal Akka alias Vijay Laxmi, Devpal Chandrashekhar Reddy, Shantipriya Reddy, Meena Choudhari, Korsa Sunny, Markam Sunny and Asit Kumar Sen. The ultras also want anti-Naxal Operation Green Hunt to be cancelled, security forces to be withdrawn from the region and persons against whom they allege "fake cases" have been registered, released from the jails.

Dr Binayak Sen urges Maoists to release Collector Menon unconditionally