Top Maoist leader Kishenji tonight said the Centre should take the initiative of declaring a ceasefire and left a phone number for Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to contact the red rebels.
"The Union Home Ministry should take the first initiative of declaring ceasefire and has to issue a written statement to the media. After examining it, we will fax our response to the prime minister and the Union home minister," Kishenji told PTI from an undisclosed location.
"Union Home Minister P Chidambaram can call us up on this number -- 9734695789 on February 25 (the day to be observed as Remembrance Day by Maoists) at 5:00 pm in the evening and speak to us. We will respond to his call," Kishenji said. Reacting to Chidambaram's appeal that Maoists should abjure violence and issue a statement that it was prepared for talks, he said "it is unclear."
The underground leader said, "The home minister has appealed to us to abjure violence for 72 hours, but if the central government is ready to co-operate with us, then we are ready to abjure violence for 72 days even." Earlier in the day, on Kishenji's offer of conditional ceasefire, Chidambaram had said, "I would like no ifs, no buts and no conditions."
The elusive Maoist leader said, "We cannot accept the central ministry's offer on their terms. We are ready to stop violence for 72 days provided the state-sponsored terrorism is stopped. "For the last 40 years our central committee has been speaking against state-sponsored terrorism and state violence. If the state doesn't stop violence, then it is not possible for us to abjure violence," he said. Kishenji also denied the involvement of Maoists in the attack on joint forces at the Kantapahadi camp in West Midnapore district last night.
"Maoists didn't attack the camp. It was the forces of (Chief Minister) Buddhadeb (Bhattacharjee) and Chidambaram who picked up People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) president Lalmohon Tudu and two others and killed them," he alleged. He said "by killing him, the joint forces have committed a heinous crime." This would be protested with a 24-hour bandh in five states -- West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and Chattishgarh on February 28, he said. "We appeal to the people to co-operate with us." PTI
