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Kerala Timeline 2017

Date

Incidents

January 2

Police have received evidence that the CPI-Maoist, with the support of tribal people, took control of forest land, along Kerala and Tamil Nadu border, by cutting down hundreds of trees. A series of video clip, released by Police, show that the armed CPI-Maoist and tribal people are jointly removing trees in forest and installing CPI-Maoist flag in the area. Police suspect that the area shown in the video is Agali forest region of Palakkad District. According to Police, the visuals were recovered from the digital documents that were seized after the recent Police encounter with CPI-Maoist in Nilambur forest in which two CPI-Maoist leaders, Kuppu Devaraj and Ajitha, were killed.

January 15

The SFs in Kerala have warned that the CPI-Maoist cadres are planning a coordinated movement of its urban and rural forces for strengthening its activities in southern States of India, mainly in Kerala. SFs claimed this on the basis of the review report of the SZC of the CPI-Maoist retrieved by the Police from the site of Nilambur encounter. The report says, that they were able to defeat the enemy plans and successfully organize the meeting in the forest area of tri-junction under the protection of PLGA Forces, support and participation of people.

January 24

The Central leadership of CPI-Maoist had warned their comrades operating the tri-junction area in South India against launching attacks on Police. The leadership thought such an action would be detrimental for the organisation in the current stage of the movement. This was revealed in a letter suspected to be written by a Central Committee or politburo member of the party, which was recovered from the camp inside the Nilambur forest after the Police firing on November 24, 2016. The central leadership of the Maoists felt that the strategy in the tri-junction area should have been devised, based on the experiences of four-and-a-half decades history of revolutionary war in India. But they believe that the comrades in zonal committee were instead inspired by the People's war in Peru and Nepal.

February 12

The opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, said that he is ready to take the initiative to facilitate negotiation talks between the Government of Kerala and the CPI-Maoist, if Maoists were ready to surrender their arms and create an atmosphere of peace first.

April 12

The trial of the Mavelikkara CPI-Maoist meeting case was completed at the NIA Court at Kochi in Ernakulam District of Kerala. The court is likely to adjourn the judgement on April 22. NIA found the accused were members of RDF, a frontal organisation of the CPI-Maoist. It is worth mentioning that, Rajesh of Mavelikkara, Bahuleyan of Njarayilkonam, Devarajan of Kollam, Gopal - a scientist with the IGCAR at Kalpakkam - belonging to Tamil Nadu and Mannur Ajayan were the accused.

April 19

At least four Police stations reportedly facing CPI-Maoist threat in rural Kozhikode District are awaiting funds from the State Government and the Centre for their fortification. Thottilpalam, Peruvannamozhi, Kurachoondu and Valayam Police Stations are the Police Stations which do not properly meet the standards of protection. Incidentally, the LWE Division under the MHA has released INR 6.23 billion for the fortification of 400 Police Stations in various parts of the country. However, none of the stations from Kerala figures in the list.

April 21

Police conducted combing operations in Varichilmala region of Mancheeri colony in Nilambur forests in the Malappuram District after receiving reports of a Maoist group camping inside the Nilambur forests. It was also reported that the group has planted landmines around their camp near Mancheeri tribal colony, in an apparent bid to prevent Police raids. The reports said that a group of armed people had warned Mancheeri Colony residents of landmines, and asked them not to enter their camp area. The investigation was started following a directive from the CM, who had received a report from the state special branch.

May 9

The CPI-Maoist cadres have formed a new 'combat and operational' unit at the Kerala-Tamil Nadu-Karnataka 'tri-junction' at Nilambur in Malappuram District. The new combat unit is formed in a bid to 'avenge' the death of CPI-Maoist leaders Kuppu Devaraj and Ajitha at the Nilambur Kurulai forest area last year (2016). The new unit has been named Varahini Dalam. The Police suspected eight CPI-Maoist cadres to be part of the unit. Police Stations and strategic institutions in Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad and Kozhikode districts had been placed on high alert.

As per reports, the Varahini Dalam will work around the Wayanad Wildlife Reserve, Tamil Nadu's Muthumala Wildlife center, and Karnataka's Bandipur Tiger Reserve. CPI-Maoist leader C.P. Moideen heads the unit. The new unit is the fourth that the CPI-Maoist cadres have. The other units are Kabani Dalam comprising of Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malapuram Districts, the Nadukani Dalam which focuses on Nilambur and Tamil Nadu's Gudalur. The third one, Bhavani Dalam, is focused on areas like Palakkad and Coimbatore.

May 14

A group of five armed CPI-Maoist cadres, including a woman, was spotted in a habitat near the Dumdum Estate along the Mundakai forest in Wayanad District. The CPI-Maoist cadres stayed in the area between 2 pm and 4 pm and even made the locals feed them. The CPI-Maoists had formed a new branch (Dal) centered on Kerala's borders with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka after the encounter deaths of two of its leaders in a Nilambur forest. The Varahini Dal would be the fourth branch of the party in Kerala.

June 15

The Munnar Police arrested a man with suspected links to CPI-Maoist from Munnar town in Idukki District. J Manoj, a plantation labourer residing at the Kanan Devan estate quarters, had migrated to Munnar from Tamil Nadu and his arrest is expected to shed light on the suspected links between Pembilai Orumai and the LWEs.

July 31

Posters in the name of cadres of the CPI-Maoist surfaced in Punchakkolli Tribal Colony, under Vazhikadavu Police Station limit, in Malappuram District. As per the posters, the CPI-Maoist cadres at Nilambur in the District have vowed to avenge the murder of their senior leaders Kuppu Devraj and Ajitha, as part of the on-going observance of Martyrs' Week by the cadres. The posters say that the encounter killing of Devraj and Ajitha is in clear violation of human rights and the organization would not pardon the traitors.

August 4

Escorted by a Police team, Kanyakumari alias Suvarna, a woman leader of the CPI-Maoist involved in more than 20 cases registered in Kerala and other southern States, was brought to Kochi in Ernakulam District. She was brought as part of a case related to an attack on a Policeman in Wayanad in 2015. Suvarna, a Karnataka native, was brought to Kochi from Chikmagalur following a production warrant issued by the NIA Court.

August 6

A member of Western Ghats Zonal Committee (WGZC) of the CPI-Maoist, Soman, had expressed to surrender before Police in Malappuram District. Sonam joined PLGA of the party in 2014. The sources said the immediate provocation for the surrender offer was due to threats faced by Soman, a native of Kalpetta in Wayanad District, and his family members from Naxal groups.

August 20

The Democratic Students' Association (DSA), a pro-Left outfit to be launched on August 26 in Kochi in Ernakulam District of Kerala, could be a CPI-Maoist frontal organisation, suspects the intelligence wing of the State Police. The association's members, however, call it "an independent group upholding scientific socialism." The Police, however, suspect that it is another attempt by those propagating Maoist ideology to "influence the hearts and minds of youngsters." A senior official in charge of internal security in the office of the State Special Branch in Thiruvananthapuram told that Maoist sympathisers were "trying to capture different spheres of our lives through frontal organisations in various fields." He pointed out that Paadaantharam, under the auspices of which the DSA was being launched, was the students' outfit of Porattam, which has links with the Maoists. "They have a cultural wing called 'Njattuvela'. Though the DSA cannot be called a Maoist organisation, their hidden agenda is to propagate that ideology," the official said. The Police are keeping an eye on their activities, he said, pointing out that Ami, an organiser of the DSA, is the daughter of Rupesh and Shyna, who are in jail on charge of suspected links with Maoists.

September 7

Kerala Police launched a massive combing operation against the cadres of the CPI-Maoist in the forest areas near Parappanpara at Thamarassery in Kozhikode District. District Police Chief (rural) M K Pushkaran said five suspected armed CPI-Maoist cadres, including a woman, visited a house at Parappanpara. It is suspected the Maoists were led by Soman, a native of Wayanad and a former leader of Porattom.

September 21

CPI-Maoist leader Kalidasan aka Kalidas aka Sekhar Raja (44), was arrested from the Moolakombu tribal settlement on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border at Pudur near Attappady block of Mannarghat Taluk in Palakkad District. Kalidas, who hailed from Pannaiyapuram near Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram District of Tamil Nadu, has been working underground for the past several years across southern India, was facing criminal cases in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Police claimed that he belonged to the Bhavani dalam of the Maoist outfit working in and around the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve comprising the hill Districts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.

November 3

A six-member armed group, suspected to be CPI-Maoist cadres, threatened a shopkeeper at gunpoint at his house in Wayanad District. The Police said the group in green uniform reached the house of Moideen of Melmuriyil Kodiyadan, who runs a small provision store at Pozhuthana under the Vythiri Police Station limits, around 1 a.m. The team threatened Moideen at gunpoint and asked him to provide them food. When he tried to call his family members, the armed men forbade him to do so. Later, they took him to his shop beside the house and took away provisions such as tea dust, rusk, biscuits, bun, and sugar, the Police said. The team left to the nearby Kurichyarmala forest after spending nearly one hour in the area, the Police said.

December 11

The State Home Department has given sanction to conduct the 'Martyr Meet' at Gandhi Park in Mananthavady in Wayanad District on December 14, to commemorate the death of CPI-Maoist leaders Kuppu Devaraj alias Shanker, and Ajitha alias Latha alias Meera killed in a special operation in the Nilambur forests on November 24, 2016. The Police gave permission based on an application filed by the 'Martyr Meet Commemoration Committee'. Wayanad District Police Chief Arul R B Krishna said the committee had applied for a mike sanction and the Police gave the nod after verifying the antecedents of the applicants against whom there were no criminal records. "But the event will be under thorough police surveillance. We'll take action if they resort to any speeches which are against the nation and inflammatory in nature," said Arul.

Note:Compiled from news reports and are provisional.

 

 

 

 

 
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