Canadian cyclist held in Maoist heartland, is safe
He had set out his bicycle expedition from Mumbai on March 14.
Bhopal: Canadian national John Szlazak, who has gone missing in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Sukma on Monday, has been held “captive” by Jan Militia, foot soldiers of outlawed CPI (Maoist), police sources said on Tuesday.
The foreign national, who represented Canad-a-based organisation- Immigration Refugee Citizen-, was on a bicycle expedition in the country and was last seen in the village of Singamdaga under Kistaram tehsil in the district on Monday morning, Bastar police said.
He had set out his bicycle expedition from Mumbai on March 14. “A Canadian national has gone missing in Sukma district. Either he lost his way or he has been detained by the locals. We have not been able to contact him so far. We are trying to secure his safe release through locals. Hopefully, he will be set free by Wednesday morning,” Bastar range inspector general of police P. Sunder Raj told this newspaper on phone.
“He may have been in the captivity of the lower level Maoist cadres. However, I cannot say much on the matter since it related to national security,” he said, adding, “All I can say is that he is safe and sound”.