Kishanji proposes three-month ceasefire ahead of talks
By IANSTuesday, August 17, 2010
KOLKATA - Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji Tuesday night proposed a three-month ceasefire as a pre-condition for talks between the Left wing rebels and the government.
In an audio tape sent to sections of the media, Kishanji sought social activist Swami Agnivesh as the mediator for the talks.
“Both the government and our outfit will declare the three-month armistice simultaneously. Then only the ground will be prepared for the talks,” Kishanji, a Communist Party of India-Maoist politburo member, said in the audio tape.
Kishanji said the Maoists wanted Swami Agnivesh as the mediator but added that they had got information that the government could ask Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to be the go-between for the talks.
“If she (Banerjee) doesn’t have any problems to mediate, we are game,” he said.
Kishanji also referred to writer Arundhati Roy, Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman, human rights activist Gautam Navalkha as the facilitators for the talks.
The Maoists have been waging an armed struggle across several states including West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa.
