Maoist leader Kishenji calls for three-month ceasefire

KOLKATA - Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji on Tuesday stated that Maoists are ready to observe a three-month ceasefire for the sake of peace and for talks.

“President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in their Independence Day speeches, have appealed to the Maoists to abjure violence. We are never for violence but the government has instigated us to take up arms,” Kishenji said from an undisclosed destination.

“We are always against terrorism and corruption of any kind…It has been our party’s mandate to fight corruption and so we are mobilising people all over the country to ensure that they raise their voice against injustice,” he added.

He claimed there were some reports from the PMO that Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has been asked to work as a mediator.

“If she agrees, then we have no problem,” he said.

He also suggested some names of mediators name including writer Arundhati Roy, singer and Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman, B D Sharma, Gopal Narlekar and Ramanna.

He also demanded that the Rs. 8,000 crore that had been sanctioned for modernisation of police force and Rs. 60 lakh per day being spent for the anti-Naxal operation be utilised for employment and income generation schemes in underdeveloped districts of the country. (ANI)