Jagdapur, February 11: The Maoists had abducted an engineer of a private construction company engaged in a bridge project in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh.
While inspecting the work on the bridge under construction in Bedre police station area bordering Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh, Ashok Pawar, an engineer of Ashok Mittal Construction Company, and a colleague Anand Kishore were kidnapped by the Naxalites. Engineer Ashok Pawar, along with one of his companions, Anand Kishore, had gone to inspect the under-construction bridge over the Indravati river.
The incident is said to have happened around 1 pm on Friday. In this regard, ASP Pankaj Shukla says that there has been an incident of kidnapping but complete information is not yet available. Bedere is in constant touch with the police station.
According to sources, the engineer reached the site before the security personnel had conducted the area domination and road opening. The security forces deployed in the area has been providing security cover to the employees engaged in the infrastructure projects that rebels have been opposing.
By the time security personnel could reach the spot, the Maoists had taken the engineer and the employee hostage. A brief gun-battle took place between the security personnel and the rebels before the latter skipped into the dense forests with the abducted engineer and the employee.
Senior police officials said the were examining the information and would launch operation to free the hostages.
The outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoists) that is active in the region has so far not claimed the responsibility for the incident.
