Abducted Chhattisgarh collector traceless

Raipur, April 22 (IANS) Chhattisgarh police were Sunday yet to find a clue about Sukma district collector Alex Paul Menon, a day after he was abducted from a forested area at gun-point by Maoists while he was interacting with tribal farmers about their problems.

Police officials posted in Sukma district searched certain parts of the forest area adjoining Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of Sunday to rescue the abducted 32-year-old collector.

"But he is so far completely traceless, we have no idea at which part of their hideouts the rebels have kept him hostage," officials here at the police headquarters told IANS.

A source added that the state government and the police department were eagerly waiting for a message or demands from the Maoists to release the young Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer.

Maoists clad in tribal dresses Saturday evening abducted the IAS officer from the 2006 batch in full public view. They killed his two guards when they resisted the abduction.

Menon, who hails from Tamil Nadu, was taken hostage from a forested area Manjhipara, around 500 km south of Raipur, in the first ever abduction of any IAS officer in the mineral-rich state since Maoist insurgency broke out in the late 1980s.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, who has been heading a BJP government in the state since December 2003, and the opposition Congress have appealed to the Maoists to release the district collector immediately.

Menon's wife Asha also made a fresh appeal Sunday to the Maoists through local news channels to release her husband as he is suffering from asthma and not carrying medicines with him.