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Bhubaneswar: A hostage crisis in the eastern State of Orissa, sparked off by the capture of three executives of Posco India, came to an end late Friday night as protesting villagers of Gobindpur set all of them free, TV channels reported from the scene. Protesting villagers had detained the three employees after they had gone there this afternoon to canvass for land acquisition for a 12-million tonne steel plant at Paradip.

Earlier in the day villagers had released one of the three detainees, a lady executive, and the driver of the vehicle. According to reports, all three employees are locals from the company''s office in Kujanga, about 20 km from Paradip.

Posco India is the Indian subsidiary of the South Korean steel major.

According to police sources, the people who had detained the Posco employees were supporters of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, an anti-Posco forum that is spearheading agitation in the area against land acquisition by the company.

The captors had demanded a written statement from the company assuring them that none of its employees would enter the gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Gada Kujanga and Nuagaon to canvass for land acquisition if the captives were to be released.

Posco had recently started direct negotiations with the villagers to buy their land in the area earmarked for them, following government advice to this effect. The steel major has been facing resistance from local people on the issue of land acquisition for its project.

Of the 4,004 acres land required for the project, 3,566 acres is government owned while 438 acres are private land.