'Bihar CM mishandled the hostage situation'

RANCHI: An eerie silence enveloped Jamtoli village in Jharkhand's Simdega district soon after Bihar police on Friday confirmed the execution of BMP havildar Lucas Tete by Maoists in Lakhisarai district on Friday.
Fury against the felons was writ large on the faces of Tete's family members and co-villagers. While his wife Pyari and their three daughters were away in Bihar, his younger brother William Tete helplessly waited for the body to arrive."Lucas was a true patriot. On August 15 this year, he was in the village and unfurled the Tricolour at the government school here," William said.
He said his late brother has left behind three unmarried daughters. "I get the shivers when I think about the fate of these girls who committed no sin to be orphaned," he said and added a one-time compensation, even if it is in crores, cannot be a substitute to someone's father or husband.
"Had the Bihar government acted in the right direction to save my brother's life, he would have been alive," William said. Farida Khanam, wife of Ehsaan Khan also in Maoists' captivity, accused Bihar CM Nitish Kumar of mishandling the hostage crisis. "Had CM saheb's son been one of the four hostages, he would have reacted differently," she said as she wailed inconsolably.