Despite the Kerala Home Minister’s oft-repeated claim that the State’s police force is equipped to meet any kind of extremist threat, Monday’s early morning attacks on two Forest Department offices in two different districts by suspected Maoists have revealed the police’s unpreparedness, to meet such situations, say security experts.
What is troubling the police force most is the fact that the Maoists had struck at the Forest offices at Mukkali in the Silent Valley National Park in Palakkad district and at Kunjom, Vellamunda in Wayanad district despite the fact the areas around both the offices had already been under intense security cover. Mukkali is a place that had been put under the special surveillance of the Forest Department and the Thunderbolt commando wing of the Kerala Police. The Kunjom area in the Wayanad forests had been brought under tight security cover after the Maoists had exchanged fire with the Thunderbolt commandos on December 7.
“The Forest office at Mukkali which the Maoists attacked is just 300 metres away from a Thunderbolt camp. Similarly, the Forest outpost at Kunjom is just two kilometres away from the Chappa Adivasi colony near which the Maoists and the police had exchanged fire 15 days back. Then how could this happenIJ” asked a retired top Kerala Police official.
The former police official said that it was impossible for these incidents not to shock the police and affect their morale “as an impression has been created that the attacks that took place within a span of two hours on Monday prove the futility of their anti-Maoist operations” of 22 months in the forests of four districts in northern Kerala. That the Government itself was confused as to what position it should take on the manner was obvious from the ambiguity reflected in the words of Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala when he said on Monday that the attacks were not carried out by Maoists but by anti-social elements that were looking for “cheap publicity” when the police confirmed Maoist role.
He changed his position on Tuesday by accusing the media of distorting his words and claiming that he meant that the attacks were of anti-social nature. Still, he was reluctant to blame extremists directly as he said those behind the attacks were not Maoists but their sympathizers, adding that though there was Maoist presence in the State there was no real Maoist threat. Meanwhile, a court in Palakkad on Tuesday remanded two people in judicial custody till January 6, 2015 for Monday’s Maoist attacks on a KFC, McDonald’s food joint in Palakkad town. Reports said their interrogation had yielded indications about the identities of three other members of the nine-man group which carried out the attacks.
Those arrested were Arun Balan, a Bachelor’s degree-holder in journalism, and Sreekanth Prabhakaran, holding a post-graduate degree in economics, both hailing from Kasaragod district. The police said that raids at their homes had yielded Maoist pamphlets and CDs, adding that these would be handed over to the Palakkad police who were handling the case.
At the same time, the police drew much flak on Tuesday for carrying out an early morning raid at the office of a monthly magazine, Keraleeyam, in Thrissur and taking into custody three of its employees in connection with Monday’s Maoist attacks in Palakkad and Wayanad districts. The employees were later let off after questioning. Rights workers in Thrissur said that the police had barged into the monthly’s office as they used to do during Emergency but Home Minister Chennithala said raids would indeed be conducted as part of investigations and that these could not be carried out by passing information first.