Maoist rebels released a kidnapped police officer after two days in captivity, as police freed 21 Maoists in India's West Bengal state. The apparent prisoner swap came late Thursday after the state government allowed the Maoists to be released on bail. They had been charged with waging war against India and faced the death penalty if convicted, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The insurgents, their faces veiled and carrying automatic weapons, then released the police officer before journalists in a forest about 170 km southwest of Calcutta. “We tried all possible ways to get him and eventually that fetched results,” state Chief Secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said Friday, while still denying it was swap.
