APDR calls for release of abducted Italian tourists

A rights body on Monday said abduction of two Italian tourists at Kandhamal in Odisha was against human rights and appealed to the Maoists to release them without causing any harm to them.

''Any abduction is against the concept of human rights and keeping hostage to extract demands to the government, runs counter to the norms of international human rights,''Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) general secretary Debaprasad Roychowdhury said here.

Whatever be the allegations against the two tourists, it was against international human rights to keep them hostage for extracting demands from the government, he said.

APDR appealed to the abductors to release the two tourists without causing any physical harm to them.

The Italians, Bosusco Paolo, a tour operator in Puri and tourist Claudio Colangelo, were trekking on Ganjam-Kandhamal border, when they were kidnapped by Maoists on March 14.