The Kerala Police on Friday intensified the search for the Maoists who could have escaped Thursday’s encounter with Thunderbolt commandos in the forest in Nilambur in Malappuram district in which two extremists were killed even as the CPI, rights groups and several influential personalities protested the State’s “Maoist hunt” and allegations came up to the effect that the encounter might have been fake.
Sources in the police said that the combing operations were not limited to the jungles under the Karulayi Forest Range in Nilambur where the gunfight between the Maoists and the commandos had reportedly taken place at noon Thursday but a large number of personnel were engaged in the efforts in the areas contiguous to the Nilambur forests in Palakkad, Kozhikode and Wayanad districts.
Those killed in the encounter, according to sources, were Kapu Devaraj, a central committee member of the CPI(Maoist) and chief coordinator of the outfit’s Kerala operations, and a woman activist, Ajitha alias Kaveri. Both were said to be natives of Andhra Pradesh. Reports also said that a third Maoist, probably a top functionary from Kerala, was killed in the gunfight or had escaped with serious injuries.
Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed the encounter but claimed that he was not aware of the details. “This is a region where some attacks had taken place against the police in the recent past. The (Maoist) problem has been prevailing in that area for quite some time. This had grown into the situation of an encounter,” the Chief Minister said in Thrissur.
Visuals of the bodies of the two Maoists killed in the encounter came out on Thursday evening. Both of them were wearing the standard Maoist uniform, as per the pictures. Sources said that the police had found four tents made of plastic sheets in the middle of the jungle. They also found explosive materials, guns, ammunition, mobile phones, pamphlets and about 50 kilograms of food materials.
According to sources, the encounter which had lasted for over 20 minutes had taken place on Thursday noon at the Kandamtharisu region at Poolappotty, several kilometers inside the jungle from the Padukka Forest Station in the Karulayi Forest Range in Nilambur in Malappuram district. The Maoists had been reportedly frequenting the region since 2013 and at least two incidents of the extremists firing at the police had taken place in the past few months.
The police’s reluctance to share any clear information on the encounter with the Press, their refusal to take mediamen to the spot of encounter as they had promised earlier and the absence of any gun or other weapon near the bodies of the two Maoists sparked off rumours that the police’s version of the incident need not be true and that the extremists might not have been killed in an actual encounter.
Kanam Rajendran, State secretary of the CPI, second biggest constituent of the ruling CPI(M)-led lDF, lashed out at the State Government and the police for the killing of the two Maoists in the operation in Nilambur by saying that the lDF was elected to rule the State not to implement the policies being pursued by the BJP-led Central Government.
“Does anyone have the right to kill someone for expressing his opinionIJ There are several people who speak and work for Adivasis and Dalits. Any effort to stifle their voice instead of examining whether that voice is valid or not is absolutely inappropriate as far as a modern society is concerned. In my opinion, it is the duty of the lDF Government to give out a message that such incidents should not take place in Kerala,” Kanam said in Alappuzha.
“I am not a Maoist but I view police encounters with suspicion... What crime had the Maoists in Nilambur committed in Kerala that warranted their killing by the Kerala PoliceIJ What has happened in Nilambur is plain hunt on humans. The rulers here are responsible for that,” said leading cine-actress Joy Mathew.