Kerala police personnel and suspected Maoists exchanged fire in a remote tribal area in the forest region of Palakkad district on Saturday. The firing was started by the Maoists and the police fired back seven rounds at the extremists. There were no casualties among the police personnel but officials suspected that two Maoists had been injured, one of them seriously.
The incident took place near Kadukumanna near the Attappadi tribal region under the Agali police station limits in Palakkad district at about 12.15 PM Saturday when the Maoists opened fire at a seven-man police team who were on routine patrol duty. Official sources said that the Maoists escaped into the dense forest after the police returned the fire.
This was the second direct encounter between the police and the left extremists in Kerala in less than a year. Maoists and the police had exchanged fire at Vellamunda in Wayanad district on December 7, 2014. The firing on Saturday took place near Anavay, where Maoists had torched a camp shed of the Forest Department on January 1.