While Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee brainstorms in Kolkata on ways to tackle the crisis arisen out of the abduction of a police officer in Tuesday’s raid by Maoists in Sankrail, a special rescue team in West Midnapore is awaiting orders from the Writers’ Buildings.

At present, the forces are avoiding any large-scale combing operation in the area fearing that any such move would put the life of abducted officer, Officer-in-Charge of Sankrail police station Atindranath Dutta, in danger. But simultaneously, attempts are on to locate Dutta and Maoist leader Kishenji alias Koteshwar Rao, who has demanded the release of Maoist cadres in exchange for the O-C.

“We are doing everything to get the abducted officer back. The situation is delicate and our first priority is to save the life of the officer,” said Manoj Verma, Superintendent of Police of West Midnapore district. Till late evening, the state government’s strict instruction to the security forces was not to engage the Maoists in large-scale operations in the Jhargram-Lalgarh belt.

“We are conducting small combing operations. We are yet to get the go ahead for conducting large-scale operations and engaging the Maoists in order to rescue the O-C,” said a senior police officer.

The security forces believe that Dutta is somewhere close to West Midnapore-Jharkhand border.

“Kishenji is also very much in the Jhargram-Lalgarh area. But since he is moving from one point to another, it is difficult to track him,” said a senior police officer.

“He recently moved from Gopiballavpur to Lalgarh area,” said the officer.

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