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Kerala Timeline 2017
Date
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Incidents
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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July 31
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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.
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August 4
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Note:Compiled from news reports and
are provisional.
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