Suspected Maoists carried out eight surprise attacks in Kerala in 52 days - the last being on Friday - but the Kerala police, its Intelligence wing and Thunderbolt, the specially trained commando unit of the police, are still groping in the dark in their hunt for the left extremists despite the crores of rupees spent so far in the name of anti-Maoist operations.
Police officials admit that the six-member extremist gang headed by Maoist leader Rupesh which had attacked a stone quarry-crusher unit at Nedumpoil in Kannur district early Friday morning had escaped after collecting provisions from a nearby Adivasi colony but the cops have so far not been able to form even a rough idea as to the direction in which they could have escaped. Similarly, the reported incident of Maoists exchanging fire with Thunderbolt commandos at Kunjom, Vellamunda in Wayanad district had taken place on December 7 but the police are yet to find out even its basic aspects like how many extremists had taken part in the action, what kind of weapons had been used, etc.
Despite all these attacks and the obvious support the extremists are getting from the Adivasis in the colonies in northern Kerala forests, Kerala’s Congress Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala is saying that the trouble-makers are not proper Maoists but their sympathisers and that they are just anti-social elements showing cowardice by conducting attacks under the cover of darkness. “In short, what we are witnessing in the Maoist scene in the State is a combined failure of the Government and the police. The people should now be beginning either to suspect that the entire Maoist stories are just lies or that our police force is just a bunch of amateurs standing stunned at the extremists’ prowess,” said a former officer of the Kerala Police’s Intelligence wing.
“The Home Minister keeps on saying that there is Maoist presence in the State but they have not grown to be a threat even when frequent attacks are taking place. He is also saying that the extremists are an isolated lot while his own police are sure that they are getting immense support from the Adivasis. What kind of an amateur system is thisIJ” he says. Even top police officials admit that the recent incidents have proved the futility of the two-year, multi-crore rupee project of anti-Maoist combing operation by Thunderbolt commandos in the forests of Wayanad, Kannur, Kozhikode, Palakkad and Malappuram. Such a situation may prompt the people to suspect the intent and sincerity of the police operation, they warn.
The Thunderbolt commandos had started the combing operations in February, 2013 in the northern jungles with the help of the Forest Department and Adivasi trackers but they have not been able to find any extremists or their hideouts though there have been frequent reports about their sighting at Adivasi colonies and even in the same forests being combed by the cops. Police officials say that shortage of properly trained personnel and lack of sophisticated surveillance and communication equipment and rough terrain vehicles are some of the reasons for the failure of the operations. Sources in the Home Department allege that the Finance Department is refusing to release funds for crucial programmes citing Treasury constraints.
If reports coming out from the Adivasi colonies in north Kerala forest zones are to be believed, tribespeople are feeling that the stories about Maoists could be a ploy of the authorities to scare and unsettle them in order to let forces like the quarry and mining mafia operate smoothly in the forests. “We are fed up with the nightly inspections and the questioning by the police who claim to be searching for Maoists. The police accuse us of listening to their talks and giving them shelter and food. We often have a feeling that the real objective of the police is not to nab the so-called Maoists but they are more interested in harassing us,” said a youth in a Wayanad Adivasi colony.