Nitish calls all-party meet over Maoist deadline

PATNA - Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has called an all-party meeting Saturday to discuss the Maoist deadline set for releasing their eight jailed commanders and the rebels’ claim that they had killed one of the four policeman they had abducted, sources in the chief minister’s office said.

The opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had appealed to the chief minister to call an all-party meeting to discuss the situation after Maoists claimed to have killed Sub-Inspector Abhay Kumar Yadav, one of the four kidnapped by the rebels after a six-hour gunfight in Lakhisarai district Sunday.

The gunbattle left seven policemen dead and 10 injured. Maoists claimed the gunfight was in retaliation for the killing of their leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and a journalist on the night of July 1-2 in Andhra Pradesh.