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Maoists release 14 labourers

February 12, 2005 13:55 IST

Fourteen labourers who were abducted by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) activists from two camps in Rairakhol sub-division of Sambalpur district have been released, police said.

The labourers were released on Friday night at a forest adjoining the villages where the labour camps were located, Superintendent of Police, Sambalpur, Susanta Kumar Nath said.

Nath said intense pressure mounted on the Maoists had forced them to release the labourers.

About 50 ultras, some of them masked and carrying weapons, had raided Phulkusum and Podanala villages and forced 19 labourers to accompany them into the deep jungle on February nine.

The labourers were engaged in the construction of a road in the area under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Five of them were later released.

Combing operations by the Orissa State Armed Police and Greyhound personnel were continuing in the forests, the police said.

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