Bhubaneswar, April 16: Maoists today set free all the 11 persons they had abducted in Malkangiri district on Monday, bringing the excruciating wait for their release to an end.

Confirming the release, inspector general (southwestern range) Yashwant Jethwa said three of the abductees, who were set free by the rebels, were suspected to be Maoist militia members.

"We are going to interrogate all of them to update our database. Combing in the entire area has been intensified," the officer said.

The abductees, including former chairman of the Mathili block Trinath Bhumia and Kartanpali village head Sanyasi Bhumia, were released in two batches of five and six.

Earlier in the day, when the rebels set free the first batch of five hostages, director-general of police Sanjeev Marik had said some of them were Maoist sympathisers.

Hailing from Kartanpali and Barha villages within the Mathili police limits of the district, the hostages were picked up by a group of 25 armed rebels late on Monday night.

The kidnappers, who included a few women, were talking in Hindi - which indicated that they had come from Chhattisgarh.

The area is close to Sukma in Chhattisgarh where Maoists had killed seven police jawans in an ambush on April 11.

In the wake of the incident, security had been beefed up in prisons, including the Berhampur jail, where top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda is lodged.

Sources said the captives, most of them tribal people, were set free after being produced in praja court (a kangaroo court), organised by the rebels, who hold sway in the inaccessible areas of Malkangiri, which has the reputation of being a Maoist bastion.

Since the rebels, who carried out the kidnappings at Kartanpali and Barha, are suspected to be members of the Darbha committee of CPI(Maoist) that operates both on Odisha-Chhattisgarh border, security forces have stepped up combing on both sides of the border.