Paradip, May 28: Anti-Posco activists today held an armed police team hostage for over three hours in the Dhinkia area, widely regarded as the nerve-centre of anti-Posco movement.

“Seven jawans of the Orissa State Armed Police (OSAP) reserve and a driver were intercepted and were taken hostage by a section of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) activists near Patanahaat under Dhinkia gram panchayat that comes under the proposed steel project area around 11am today. They were released unharmed after three hours. As the driver of the jeep carrying the OSAP men was unfamiliar with the area, the jeep carrying the policemen had strayed into the area,” said Jagatsinghpur superintendent of police (SP) S. Devidatta Singh.

“The captors did not harm the policemen and the driver. They were treated well and given snacks and water. We were preparing to dispatch police forces to the spot but an untoward situation was averted,” said S.P. Singh. The police team was on its way to Trilochanpur near the IOCL oil refinery project when it strayed into the Dhinkia area.

“We believe in peaceful resistance movement in a democratic manner. The chief minister had held talks with us and committed that no police force would move into the Dhinika area. As the people spotted the armed police, they intercepted the jeep in a spontaneous reaction. But the detained policemen by us were treated like guests. We ensured their safety. As the government broke its commitment, people were forced to take law unto their hands,” said PPSS president Abhaya Sahu, an anti-plant outfit.

People from the Dhinkia area had congregated in large numbers today and staged a public meeting to give vent to their anger against the ongoing land acquisition process and “unlawful and arbitrary” suspension of the Dhinkia sarpanch.

“Let there be land acquisition in Dhinkia with the consent of landowners. Use of force would not be tolerated,” he said, adding that the resistance movement would be intensified in the coming days.

Pro-Posco United Action Committee (UAC) dismissed today’s hostage incident as a cheap publicity gimmick.

“The PPSS movement is getting enfeebled day-by-day. Of late, it’s support base has been severely eroded in its stronghold in Dhinkia. As more and more landowners are volunteering to give away their land to Posco, they have resorted to desperate acts like holding a handful of policemen under hostage,” said UAC general secretary Nirvaya Samantaray.

Unfazed by the Dhinkia incident, the authorities continued the land acquisition exercise in the Nuagaon gram panchayat where 31 betel vineyards were demolished and 3 acres of land was acquired. The land losers were paid Rs 34 lakh as compensation.

With today’s acquisition, 23.94 acre of betel vineyards that had come up in the encroached forestland has been acquired in the six-day exercise that resumed on May 18. “As many as 159 betel plots have been acquired and 158 land losers were paid compensation to the tune of Rs 1.86 crore. On August 3, when MoEF halted the land acquisition process, 97 betel farms had already been brought down and 11.83 acre of land was acquired,” said Nrusinghha Charan Swain, special land acquisition officer for the Posco steel project.