Chidambaram makes new offer for talks with Naxals

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday made a fresh offer to hold talks with Naxals if they "suspend" violence even for just 72 hours, a day after Maoists attacked a bus in Chhattisgarh killing 50 people.

"Maoists should say 'We will abjure violence. We will suspend violence and actually suspend violence for 72 hours'. We will get the chief ministers on board. We will respond. We will fix a date, time and place for talks and let the Maoists come for the talks on anything they wish to talk," Chidambaram told the CNN-IBN television channel.

Chidambaram said the Communist Party of India-Maoist never responded "seriously" to the offer of talks. "They are indulging in gimmickry I am afraid the media plays up that gimmick," he said.

Asked whether government forces will also halt all operations against them during the ceasefire, the home minister responded, "That goes without saying". Chidambaram said "if they observe complete suspension of violence for just 72 hours, it goes without saying that police will not take any action against any CPI-Maoist activist, hideouts or camps."

He said complete suspension means there should not be any attack on infrastructure, any landmine blast or any targetting of telephone towers. On the issue of Hindu extremists, the home minister said there is evidence pointing to various groups which are supported by extreme right-wing Hindu fundamentalist group.

"Don't call them Hindu terrorists. A terrorist is a terrorist. Except in this case, the terrorist subscribes to extreme fundamentalist Hindu philosophy. We feel that there is evidence pointing to them in the Ajmer Blast, Mecca Masjid Blast and investigating agencies are closely following the trail that we have stumbled upon or discovered," he said.

The home minister said that investigation alone will show whether the dots are being rightly connected to that one organisation or to different organisations are working in coordination.