The Kerala Police have put the forest regions in the northern districts of the State under tight security cover in the context of the Intelligence reports that Maoists may launch a surprise attack from the jungles on the occasion of the first anniversary — on Friday — of the killing of two senior Left extremists in what the police claim was an encounter in the forests of Malappuram district.
The Central Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Intelligence wing of the State police also expect pro-Left human rights organisations to hold meetings in towns and villages near the forest region where the two Maoists were killed but no formal announcements have come so far from such groups in this regard.
Special security arrangements including deployment of commandos armed with modern weapons have been made at seven police stations in the region in the wake of warnings about possible Maoist attack on the anniversary of the encounter. Sources in the police said that all necessary measures had been taken to thwart any kind of Maoist attack.
Commandos of Thunderbolt, the elite anti-Maoist wing of Kerala Police, have formed what the police termed as a leak-proof human-weapon security fence around the forests of Malappuram, Palakkad, Kannur and Wayanad districts to prevent the Maoists from entering or leaving the jungles which agencies expect the Maoists to use as their bases for launching revenge strikes.
However, protests came up from the Forest Department on the eve of the anniversary of the encounter after the withdrawal of the police security for the Forest stations in the region where the encounter took place last year despite the Intelligence reports that the Maoists might attempt to attack unguarded Forest stations.
The security cover for Padukka and Vaniyambalam Forest stations in the Maoist-infested region in Malappuram district was reportedly withdrawn on Tuesday morning allegedly without the knowledge of even the Divisional Forest Officer. Sources said the DFO had sent a complaint to the District Collector regarding this.
In an encounter the controversies over which are yet to subside, Thunderbolt commandos had shot dead top Maoist leader Kapu Devaraj (61) and senior woman activist Ajitha alias Kaveri (42), both hailing from Tamil Nadu, in the Karulai jungles under the Padukka Forest Station limits in Nilambur in Malappuram district on November 24, 2016.
While the police and the Government have claimed that Devaraj and Ajitha were killed in an encounter, Maoists and rights groups are alleging that it was a fake encounter and that the two extremists were killed in a unilateral attack. The Malappuram District Collector has already handed over the report of a Magisterial-level inquiry to the Government on the incident.
The IB has reportedly informed the Kerala authorities that the Maoists may spring a “retaliation that would not be forgotten easily” on the occasion of the first anniversary of the incident and that this could be against police and/or Forest offices. “The withdrawal of the security cover for the Forest stations in this context is a serious issue,” a Forest Department official said.
A lone Forest official, who was on guard duty on Wednesday at the Padukka Forest station under the jurisdiction of which the encounter had taken place last year, said, “We hope that the police security will be restored. The biggest problem for us in a situation like this is that we don’t have enough manpower and weapons to meet emergencies.”
However, a top police official claimed on Thursday that the force had mobilized enough resources to face any Maoist attempt for carrying out a revenge strike. “Indeed, there are Intelligence reports. But it is not yet clear whether the Maoists would dare to launch a strike,” he said.