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Sukma District Collector's family celebrates his release

      Family members of Sukma District Collector Alex Paul Menon on Thursday celebrated his release, and thanked the government for its efforts during the entire hostage crisis. Harshmita, the daughter of Menon' brother, thanked the government for its support in helping Menon pass through this difficult phase in life. "I feel very happy about my uncle's release. And I can't say how happy I am. I am very excited. Thanks for the government (support) and thanks to the people, who prayed for my uncle's release," she said. Meanwhile, Samadanam, a senior lady neighbour, also echoed similar sentiments, and said everyone is delighted over Menon's release. "He is a very nice person, who whole-heartedly works for the people. We were much pained when he was under captivity from the last 12 days. With great hardship, his father brought up his children and was very much pained on all these days. But now after his release we all are happy," she said. Menon, who was kidnapped by the Maoists almost two weeks ago, has been released by his abductors. The Maoists had issued a statement earlier on Tuesday evening, saying they would hand over Menon to the two mediators who represented them in their talks with the Chhattisgarh Government. The message was forwarded after an agreement reached between government negotiators and the Maoists over the release of Menon. The message said among other things that the Maoists are ready to handover Menon to their mediators tomorrow in front of the people of Tadmetla in Chhattisgarh's South Bastar region. Earlier, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said the mediators would be provided all facilities to get Menon back. "We were hoping that they will release him within 48 hours but they have fixed the date of release for May 3. So we are okay with it, even if its 24 hours late. We welcome this decision and we will provide every facility to the mediators," Singh said. The Maoists had kidnapped Menon after killing two of his bodyguards on April 21, while he was meeting with villagers of Majhipara village in the Keralapal area of the Naxal-infected district. The Naxals had 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 wanted 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. The new agreement that has been concluded by the negotiators is different from the earlier demands of the Maoist abductors. Menon is the first collector of the newly-created Sukma district and was known to be pro-active in undertaking development work in the backward region.

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