The Hindu Business Line : Four POSCO officials taken hostage, released

Project woes
The executives, three of them Korean nationals, were taken hostage at around 10.30 a.m.
Activists of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti were said to be involved.

Prafulla Das

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 13

In a dramatic development, four executives of POSCO-India were taken hostage by villagers opposing the company’s 12-million-tonne-per-annum capacity steel project near Tandakul village in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district on Saturday.

They were, however, released following intervention of the local police.

The executives, three of them Korean nationals, were taken hostage at around 10.30 a.m. by the villagers and activists of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. The hostages were released at 4.30 p.m., after the officer-in-charge of Kujang police station, Mr Amarendra Panda, assured the Sangram Samiti leaders that the company employees would not enter the area in future without informing the local authorities.

POSCO-India reacted sharply to the detention of its executives. “We condemn the incident and are deeply concerned about the safety and security of our officials.

“These sort of activities will de-motivate the investors and have adverse impact on foreign investments, which will not be in the larger interest of the people and the State,” the company said in a statement, soon after the employees were released.

First condemnation

The villagers opposing the proposed steel project and a captive port have detained employees of POSCO at least on four occasions in the past. But it is for the first time that the company came out with a statement condemning the incident.

While the company said that its executives had gone to the locality to inspect the probable route of electrical tower to be constructed in the area between IOCL and POSCO-India project site, the President of the Sangram Samiti, Mr Abhay Sahu, said that the officials were taken hostage by the villagers when they were inspecting the company’s proposed site for a captive port.

The four employees who were taken hostage were Mr K.S. Choi and Mr S.H. Nam, both senior General Managers, Mr T.J. Ahn, General Manager and Mr Deepak Ojha, Assistant Manager.

Problems persist

Two employees of the company, who worked at their local office, had also faced trouble on Friday. The villagers had blocked the roads after the two officials entered the area. They, however, managed to come out of the blockade area by taking a different route.

The villagers have all along opposed land acquisition by POSCO for its proposed $12-billion steel plant near Paradip port.

The project is the country’s largest single foreign investment.

It may be recalled that in May, villagers had held three POSCO employees captive for 10 hours, releasing them after company officials assured that its staff would not visit the area again.

Related Stories:
Abducted Posco executives released
Posco may begin work on Orissa plant from Sept
POSCO project: Orissa taking steps to solve land problems

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