Six mandal level leaders of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party in Telangana who were kidnapped by Maoists from a remote village late in Khammam district on Wednesday evening were released on Saturday morning.
According to a report in the Times of India, the six men were freed close to Khammam district's border with Chhattisgarh.
The TRS Bhadrachalam constituency in-charge M Ramakrishna was among those who were abducted by the suspected rebels.
The TOI report also adds:
While reluctant to discuss any details of their abduction and release, Mane Ramakrishna said they were treated well by the Maoists while in captivity. He told reporters that the Naxalites wanted them to inform the government about their demands, which include an immediate halt to all combing operations by the police in the forest and Agency areas of Khammam and Adilabad districts.
In a reported letter released later by the group, the Maoists demanded that the government stop all combing operations along the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border and take immediate action against the police officers involved in the Warangal encounter in September where two Maoists, Sruthi and Vidyasagar Reddy, were gunned down.
"If the fake encounters are not stopped, then we will kill two TRS leaders from the mandal to the state level for every Maoist killed in such an encounter," the statement warned..
It is yet to be established if there was a deal or any negotiation between the police and the Maoists.