N Baijendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Raman Singh, told PTI that the two government mediators -- former Chief Secretaries of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Nirmala Buch and S K Mishra -- took part in a meeting of Cabinet sub-committee tonight.u00a0

The meeting, held under the Chairmanship of the chief minister, discussed strategies to end the five-day-old hostage crisis, he said. During the meeting, the government issued an appeal to the Naxals to extend the deadline, which ended today, set for meeting their demands, Kumar said.