Four abducted Posco officials released(lead:Posco officials)

The four Posco-India officials, including three South Korean nationals, who were taken hostage by activists of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), have been released on Saturday.

Bhubaneswar, Oct 13 : The four Posco-India officials, including three South Korean nationals, who were taken hostage by activists of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), have been released on Saturday.

The officials were released after the police officials intervened in the matter.

The senior officials of the Posco-India, the South Korean steel major's Indian subsidiary, identified as General Manager (Construction) K S Choi, S H Nam, T J Aan and D Ojha, an Oriya official, were held hostage when they were undertaking survey at the company's proposed captive port site near Paradip in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur District.

The executives, who were detained around 10 am by the activists of the PPSS, which has been opposing the project, were released at around 4.30 pm.

PPSS President Abhay Sahu said that the officials were released after Officer-in-Charge of Kujang police station Amarnath Panda handed over a written assurance to them.

"All the hostages are in good health," said Panda.

Earlier, Sahu had said that the company officials were held hostage as they deliberately entered the "restricted" area.

After the company inked MoU with the State Government, villagers have raised barricades to prevent government and company officials from entering the area.

The PPSS has been maintaining that they would not allow Posco's green-field project to come up near Paradip, saying that the project would displace people.

Posco, world's fourth largest steel maker, had signed a deal in June 2005 to set up a four-tranche 12 billion dollar steel project in India, marking what was billed the biggest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country.

The company had announced it would start steel production in its plants in India by 2010.

The Orissa Government has granted Posco mining lease rights for 30 years to supply a total of 600 million tonnes of iron ore to the new plant. The mining lease has been given in phases, depending on the progress of the plant.

The project also includes a dedicated port and power plant, iron mines, a hot-rolled coil mill and possible help to build railway lines between the mines and the plant.

ANI