Kavre, January 23:

The Maoists have set free four persons, including police constable Bikram Kalika Pudasaini, abducted from the Gamcha police post at Dadhikot, Bhaktapur, on January 14. They were released in a remote place of Kavre district at the initiative of the International Committee of Red Cross and the Kavre based Informal Sector Services Centre (INSEC).

The Maoists in their assault in the police post at Dadhikot had taken with them police constable Bikram Kalika Pudasaini of Kathmandu, Bhadrabas, 19-year-old Chitra Bahadur Tamang of Gundu VDC – 3 Silamagal, a commoner who owned a shop at the same place, 43-year-old Lal bahadur Tamang of Kirtipur Municipality – 8 Machchhegaun, 22-year-old Padam Bahadur Tamang of Gundu VDC – 3, Bhaktapur. They were handed over to the representative of the ICRC by the Maoists’ Tamang Republican Autonomous Region People’s Council member Ganga Bahadur Tamang amid a ceremony.

The INSEC had shown special concern after the news of abduction of four persons including a police constable was printed in The Himalayan Times on last Wednesday’s edition.

The INSEC’s Kavre representative, Bhojraj Timilsina and Nepal Red Cross Society Kavre branch chairman Samudralal Shrestha had arrived in the concerned place in this regard on Sunday.

A team of the ICRC members had arrived at a village in Mangaltar today after the Maoists announced they would hand over the war prisoners to the ICRC .