Suspected Maoists on Monday carried out three attacks at three different places in Kerala. Two attacks were on offices of the Forests Department while the third was on a KFC-McDonald’s outlet. Police have arrested two persons in connection with the third incident.
The Forest Range Office at Mukkali in the Silent Valley National Park in Palakkad district came under attack at 1.20 am on Monday while the exact time of the attack on the Forest Section Office at Kunjom near Vellamunda in Wayanad district was not known. The attack on the KFC-McDonald’s outlet in Palakkad town took place at 7.50 am.
Sources in the Kerala police’s Intelligence wing and the collectors of the Palakkad and Wayanad districts said the attacks on the Forest offices had all the characteristics of typical Maoist actions but State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said, “I don’t consider the incident currently taking place as Maoist operations. These are attacks intended at earning cheap publicity.”
In the attack on the Forest Range office at Attappadi, a department vehicle was torched, windowpanes were broken and four computers, several files, a camera and lenses destroyed. There had also been an unsuccessful attempt to break open the door of the room where weapons had been kept. Forest authorities said that the attack was carried out by a 15-member group.
A woman staying near the Forest office said that there were could have been more than 15 men in the group. “We came out of the house hearing commotion and the sound of breaking glass. A person standing outside asked us to go back inside saying that they were Maoists and had no intention of hurting us. The commotion had lasted for half an hour,” she said.
The posters stuck in the area in the name of CPI(Maoist) asked the people to join the Maoist struggle and to get ready for armed revolt. Accusing the Forest officials of being informers of the police, the posters said the Adivasis and other marginalised people need not expect anything from the Government.
The Forest section office that came under attack on Monday at Kunjom, Vellamunda was just two kilometres away from the spot where the Maoists and the Thunderbolt commandos of the Kerala Police had exchanged fire on December 7. Some windowpanes of the outpost were found broken and several files had been burnt.
Posters in the name of Maoist publication Kattuthee (Wild Fire) were found stuck on the walls in the area. Though 15 days have passed since the reported firing incident at Kunjom, the police have not been able to nab any Maoist or to produce any evidence of Maoist presence though they claim to have found some caps and pieces of clothes used by the extremists.
A group of about eight masked men attacked a KFC-McDonald’s outlet at Chandra Nagar in Palakkad town at 7.50 am on Monday. Maoist posters found stuck in the area contained anti-US slogans and said multinational food joints were not needed in a country where the poor people were still starving.
Police arrested two persons in connection with this incident and confirmed their Maoist connections. They were charged under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The police suspected that the duo had been involved in another attack the Maoists carried out in Kochi last month.
Suspected Maoists had vandalised the corporate office of gelatin manufacturing company, Nitta Gelatin, in Kochi city on the morning of November 10. A similar attack had been carried out on a private tourist resort, Agraharam, at Thirunelli, a temple town in Wayanad district on November 18.