By IANS
Raipur : Maoist rebels Sunday released four of the nine tribals they had abducted a day earlier in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Dantewada district.
The other five, including three women, are still captive, police said.
"At around 9 a.m., four of the tribal youths were released by Maoists. They are unharmed," Rahul Sharma, superintendent of police (Dantewada), told IANS by telephone.
"Police are interrogating the tribals who were freed about what the Maoists asked them during their captivity," he added.
Maoist rebels, who run a parallel government in the state's vast interior southern Bastar region, abducted nine tribal daily workers late Saturday from Konta area near the Andhra Pradesh border. Konta is over 510 km south of capital Raipur.
Sharma said Chhattisgarh police teams and Mizo battalion personnel had Sunday launched fresh search drives in the forested areas of Dantewada to ensure the safe release of the remaining hostages.
In a separate incident, rebels detonated two pressure bombs Saturday evening in the iron ore rich Bailadila hills in Dantewada, injuring two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel. The two, who lost both their legs, were rushed to a hospital at Bacheli town.
Chhattisgarh police say Maoists, who claim to fight for the rights of poor peasants and landless workers, have killed over 200 people in the state since January.