Two Maoists were arrested after a gunbattle with Thunderbolt commandos of the Kerala police in a forest area near Periya in Wayanad district late on Tuesday night while a search is on for two other Maoists who escaped, said a top police officer on Wednesday.
The arrested have been remanded by a local court to five-day police custody.
The encounter between the Maoists and the security forces broke out near a house in Chapparam colony where the former had come to charge their mobile phones.
“When we got information of Maoist activities in parts of Wayanad, Kannur and Kozhikode rural recently, we had started our operations to counter them over a month ago. As part of it, we had conducted an area domination exercise late yesterday night in this location and were able to surround them. They fired on us and we returned the fire and subsequently apprehended two of them,” said MR Ajith Kumar, ADGP (law and order).
The two Maoists arrested were identified as Chandu and Unnimaya while one of the Maoists who escaped into the forest is suspected to be Sundari. They reportedly belong to the Kabani Dalam, a Maoist unit that operates in Kannur and Wayanad districts of Kerala.
A man named Anish Babu, aka Thambi, suspected to be a Maoist sympathiser, was earlier arrested in Koyilandy by the Kozhikode Rural police.
{{/usCountry}}A man named Anish Babu, aka Thambi, suspected to be a Maoist sympathiser, was earlier arrested in Koyilandy by the Kozhikode Rural police.
{{/usCountry}}Ajith Kumar said that an AK-47 rifle, an INSAS rifle and two country-made rifles were confiscated. No civilian or security personnel have suffered injuries in the encounter, he added.
“Two to three groups are moving in these regions and incidents (related to their activities) have been reported in the past. They had attacked a KFDC office in Kambamala and broken a few CCTV cameras there. There has also been firing on forest officers,” said the ADGP.
Combing operations of the Special Operations Group (SOG) and Thunderbolt Squad of the police are going on to trace the two Maoists who escaped, he added.
In the past seven years in Kerala, there have been two major encounters between the security forces and Maoists, leading to casualties. In November, 2016, Kuppu Devaraj, a central committee member of CPI(Maoist) and wanted by Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh governments, and Ajitha, a Maoist cadre, were gunned down by Thunderbolts commandos in the forests of Nilambur. In March, 2019, CP Jaleel, a Maoist cadre, was shot dead by the police during an encounter on the premises of a resort in Vythiri in Wayanad district.