The Jharkhand police rescued four officials of Hindalco Industries, the flagship firm of the Aditya Birla Group, after they’d been abducted by Naxalites on Monday. Six employees of a contractor’s firm engaged in transportation of bauxite were also rescued in the police swoop.
The extremists had kept the abducted employees in a forest near Belawa valley, about 20 km from the Netarhat range, near the district headquarters of Gumla. The rescue was preceded by a gunbattle between police and the Naxalites.
According to police sources, a Naxalite splinter group had abducted the employees after their demands for payment of a levy was not heeded.
In the first six months of this year, there have been 201 Maoist attacks in Jharkhand, resulting in the death of 114 people, including 43 security personnel. In the corresponding period of 2008, there were 200 violent incidents, which killed 89 people, including 12 security personnel.