AIIMS student kidnap: Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti seeks Naveen Patnaik’s help

BHUBANESWAR: Hours after two posters emerged in the City claiming that AIIMS student Suhail Aijaz, a native of Kupwara, was abducted by Maoists, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday requested her Odisha counterpart to take swift action and investigate the matter. In a tweet, Mufti posted: “Concerning reports coming in about a Kashmiri student, Suhail Aijaz of Kupwara being kidnapped in Odisha. I request the authorities to investigate & take swift action.” She tagged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his office in her post.

However, Commissionerate Police of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack are suspecting that two posters are fake. The two hand-written posters (rather notes) were found pasted on a wall inside Baramunda bus stand and another on a wall of Baramunda underpass road within Khandagiri police limits.The posters asked the State authorities to release Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda in exchange for Suhail, who was studying in AIIMS here and has been missing since February 10. “We will kill Suhail if Sabyasachi is not released by the police within seven days. We will also blow up the railway station and a police station in the Capital City which will lead to fatalities,” said the posters which were signed allegedly by CPI (Maoist) Odisha State Committee. It was dated March 4.

Police Commissioner YB Khurania said they are ascertaining the authenticity of the two posters.“The content of both the posters is same. According to preliminary investigation, it seems the notes seem to be  fake but we are conducting further inquiry into the case,” a senior police officer said.Sabyasachi Panda, who was once secretary of CPI (Maoist) state committee, had been expelled from the Maoist outfit before forming a unit of his own under the name Odisha Maoist Party. He was arrested by police in July, 2014.

Panda has been accused of several cases of Maoist violence in the State, including the ones in Kandhamal in 2008.Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Khurania said police are in touch with their counterparts of other states and trying to trace Suhail.So far, the cops have not been able to trace his footprint beyond Howrah which was his last known location on February 10.