Two Maoists, including a top leader of the movement, were killed in an encounter with the Thunderbolt Commandos of the Kerala Police on Thursday in the Karulayi jungles off the Padukka Forest Station in Nilambur, Malappuram district. Sources said that the police personnel were continuing their search for the Maoists who had escaped on Thursday evening even as another Maoist, injured seriously in the gunfight, had reportedly been taken into custody.
“Exchange of fire had taken place there. As per the information available so far, there have been two casualties — a man and a woman. The entire details are yet to come,” said the Inspector General of Police (Thrissur Range). He added that the encounter took place with the Maoists firing at the police personnel while they were on a search operation in the forest. Earlier reports had said that three Maoists had been killed in the encounter.
This was the first time such an intense encounter had taken place between Maoists and the police in Kerala. Also, this was the first police raid in the State that had led to killing of Maoists. Maoists had been making their presence known in the forests of the northern Kerala districts of Malappuram, Palakkad, Kozhikode and Wayanad and there had been some incidents of exchange of fire with the police earlier.
Sources said that one of the Maoists killed was Kapu Devaraj, said to be a central committee member of the CPI(Maoist-left Wing) and secretary of the Karnataka unit of the organization who had been in hiding for the past 20 years, and the woman killed in the encounter was informally identified as Ajitha alias Kaveri.
Confirming the encounter, State Director General of Police loknath Behera said that this was a proud moment for the police, who had taken “appropriate and accurate” action, but he added that he could not disclose anything more at the juncture. “We had got information and we mounted an operation on its basis. The police team members had acted in the most effective manner and with great motivation. I am very happy about that,” he said.
Following the encounter and the death of the Maoists in the forest in Malappuram district, security alert had been issued to authorities in the adjoining districts of Palakkad, Wayanad and Kozhikode. The Nilambur forest is contiguous to the jungles in these three districts and officials said the Maoists who had escaped the police action could move to any of these areas.
Acting on specific Intelligence information on armed Maoists’ presence in the Karulayi forest, a 60- strong Thunderbolt commando team had started the search in the jungle at 04.00 hours Thursday and the encounter started at noon after the Maoists fired at the commandos. Sources said that the intense gunfight ended in half an hour but the encounter lasted over three hours. There were 11 Maoists in the group, according to sources.
Though officials had initially said that the bodies of the Maoists would be brought on Thursday night itself to the Padukka Forest Station which was about three kilometers outside the jungle where the encounter took place, this bid was abandoned after considering the risk that the Maoists who had escaped the scene of encounter could mount an ambush.
The Nilambur forest comes within the “tri-junction’ in Kerala from where passage for the Maoists to the jungles of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is considered to be easy. Maoists, whose presence in the area was being reported from 2013, had resorted to firing twice earlier this year. The Thunderbolt commandos had tried to launch an offensive some weeks back but the bid was given up after some reports on it appeared in a section of the Tamil media.
The first incident of exchange of fire between Maoists and police had taken place in the jungle near the Chappa Adivasi colony coming under the Vellamunda Police Station limits in Wayanad on December 7, 2014. Since then, the Maoists had mounted several operations like torching and vandalizing Forest Department camps and offices in Palakkad and Malappuram districts.