1 Analysis Social Issues South and Central Asia

India: Persistent Target In Kerala – Analysis

November 14, 2023November 14, 2023 SATP 0 Comments

By Deepak Kumar Nayak

On November 7, 2023, the Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Thunderbolt Squad of the Kerala Police arrested two Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres, Chandru and Srimathi alias Unnimaya, following an encounter between the extremists and the Security Forces (SFs) during combing operations in rural Kozhikode and the Periya Forest region in the Wayanad District of Kerala. The SFs confiscated two AK-47 rifles from the possession of the arrested Maoists, who are suspected to be part of Kabani Dalam (armed squad), a Maoist unit that operates in the Wayanad and Kannur districts.

On October 30, 2023, a five-member CPI-Maoist group fired shots at three forest watchers, Ebin, Sijo and Bobus, of the Narikkadavu Forest Station at Chavachi in Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary in the Kannur District of Kerala. The three watchers are temporary employees of the Narikkadavu Forest Station, who were on their way to the camp shed at Ambalappara from Narikkadavu Forest Station, when the incident occurred. As they crossed the camp shed at Chavachi and moved 100 metres ahead, they saw the Maoists who were coming towards them, near the Kudakan River. Shocked to encounter the forest watchers face to face, the Maoists fled, leaving camping materials and food.

Earlier, on September 28, 2023, armed CPI-Maoist cadres attacked and vandalized the office of the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) at Kambamala estate under Thalappuzha Police Station limits in Wayanad District, demanding better residential facilities for plantation labourers.

They also urged the labourers to join their outfit. Posters in Malayalam and Tamil on behalf of the CPI-Maoist Kabani Area Committee read, “Distribute plantations to landless workers and tribal people; join the armed rebellion to escape from the wretched lives in the estate lanes to be an owner of plantations.”

On April 18, 2023, a ‘zonal commander’ of the People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a splinter group of the CPI-Maoist, identified as Ajay Oraon (29) from Jharkhand, was arrested from a migrant labour camp in the Kaimbalam area under Pantheerankavu Police Station limits in Kozhikode District, in a joint Kerala and Jharkhand Police operation. Oraon had been living at the migrant labour camp in the guise of a construction worker for the preceding one month. According to the Police, Oraon was wanted in connection with the burning of several vehicles of a road contractor after trying to extort money from him in Jharkhand in March 2023. Though Oraon was in Kerala when the attack took place, he was allegedly involved in the conspiracy.

According to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), in 2023, at least four Maoist-related incidents were reported from three districts [two from Wayanad, and one each from Kozhikode and Kannur] so far (data till November 12, 2023). Through 2022, no such incident was recorded in the state. The last incident prior to April 18, 2023, was recorded on July 25, 2021, when three gun-wielding Maoist cadres, forcibly entered a house at Kattekkad in Chittur, close to the forest, and took away food items, in Palakkad District. Since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling data on Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-linked violence, a total of 67 such incidents have been documented in the state.

Significantly, since March 6, 2000, the State has not recorded any fatality in the civilian and Security Forces (SFs) categories in LWE-linked violence (data till November 12, 2023). However, nine Maoist fatalities have been registered during this period: one in 2020, five in 2019, two in 2016, and one in 2014. The last Maoist fatality was registered on November 3, 2020, when a CPI-Maoist cadre, Velmurugan from Tamil Nadu, was killed in an encounter between five Maoists and a 20-member Thunderbolt – the elite commando Force of the State Police – patrol team, in the forests near Meenmutty in Wayanad District. During the subsequent search, the body, along with a .303 rifle, was recovered from the encounter site. According to the Police, Velmurugan was an expert in handling arms and in propagating the Maoist ideology, and was an active member of the CPI-Maoist. He had been on the run since 2012 and had cases registered against him in Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, including for criminal conspiracy against the Government with illegal weapons, among others.

Since March 6, 2000, search operations and combing raids have resulted in the arrest of 50 Maoists in the state, including the April 18, 2023 arrest (above). Prior to the April 18 incident, the last arrest was recorded on November 9, 2021, the Kerala Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested and took into custody, B.G. Krishnamurthy, a senior CPI-Maoist leader, who served as the ‘secretary’ of the ‘Western Ghats Special Zone Committee (WGSZC)’ and Savithri alias Rejitha, the ‘commander’ of the group’s Kabani Dalam, in Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad District.

Since March 6, 2000, the state has recorded one incident of Maoist surrender. On October 25, 2021, senior CPI-Maoist leader P. Lijesh, the ‘deputy commander’ of the ‘Kabani Dalam’ of the WGSZC, who worked for the organization in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, turned himself in without arms in Wayanad District. Lijesh revealed that he surrendered because “he realized that there was no point in continuing with the organization and that many young people were being misled by it.”

Indeed, constant vigil and combing operations have successfully contained Maoist efforts to extend operations into territories in the state. The Maoist groups are suspected to be hiding along the forested Kerala-Karnataka borders.

Nevertheless, in their constant effort to secure a foothold in the state, the Maoists have registered their presence in residential areas and attempted to appeal to the people to join them. According to SATP, at least 11 incidents of recording a Maoist presence in residential areas have been noted in the state in 2023, so far (data till November 12, 2023). During the corresponding period in 2022, at least one such incident was reported. There was no such incident in the remaining period of 2022. Since March 6, 2000, a total of 50 such incidents have been documented in the State. The Maoists ask a family living in such areas to prepare food for them, to collect provisions and recharge their mobile phone batteries.

On March 6, 2023, a letter written on behalf of the CPI-Maoist’s Kotiyur unit, calling for farmers to pick up guns and fight against banks that are making farmers suffer by taking their farms away, was sent to the Collectorate, Press Club, and several banks in Wayanad District. The letter threatened to kill at least one bank official who was involved in seizing farmers’ properties and demanded a ‘fine’.

On March 15, 2023, a group of four armed Maoist cadres reached Arimala Colony in Tondarnad Panchayat (village level local self-government institution) in Wayanad District and distributed pamphlets, declaring that the appointment of the new beat forest officer should be canceled and a new notification should be issued. The pamphlets also stated that poor tribals should not be cheated and that people and tribals should fight against the fraud of the government and government officials.

Furthermore, on April 15, 2023, a five-member CPI-Maoist group, came to a house in the Vietnam colony of Aralam in Kannur. During their stay, the Maoists spoke about destroying the Barapol Mini Hydropower Project in the Ayyankunnu Panchayat. It is to be noted that Barapole is the most profitable of the mini hydro projects launched by the Kerala State Electricity Board Limited in the state and has a production capacity of 15 MW. The project was inaugurated on February 29, 2016

Meanwhile, on October 23, 2023, intelligence agencies submitted a report to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, which documented significant CPI-Maoist activity in Kerala. The Maoists reportedly operate in Wayanad and Kannur Districts, and the report noted that more than 50 Maoists were camping in the forest. Maoists, including those from Jharkhand, are reported to be holding training camps in the forest areas of Kerala. The intelligence report points out that when national and state leaders go to Wayanad and Kannur districts during electioneering for the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) elections in 2024, stronger security arrangements would be needed.

Another intelligence report on October 11, 2023, warned of a potential CPI-Maoist attack on eight Police Stations – Valayam, Kuttiadi, Thottilpalam, Peruvannamuzhi, Koorachundu, Thamarassery, Thiruvambady, and Kodenchery – in the Kozhikode District. These stations have been placed on high alert. This report came in the wake of the recent Maoist presence recorded in Wayanad, raising concerns of possible attacks in the hilly areas of Kozhikode.

According to a November 10, 2023, report, it is believed that Hanumanthu alias Ganesh Uike, associated with the Maoists’ ‘Dandakaranya Zonal Committee’, and a member of the CPI-Maoist ‘Central Committee’, had shifted his operational area to the Western Ghats after the arrest of Sanjay Deepak Rao, who was a member of the Maoist ‘Central Committee’ in Telangana. Intelligence agencies assert that Uike has been in charge of the WGSZC and had visited Kerala several times. Uike is said to be coordinating the Maoist activities in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There are indications that he is the mastermind behind the Maoist actions recorded in the Kerala Forest area, including the one at Kambamala (September 28, 2023, above). According to reports, that Maoists are planning to strengthen their base in the Western Ghats and the recent actions and firings were part of that build-up. It is also believed that the firing on forest guards in the Aralam wildlife area was also a part of their plan to strengthen their presence.

Meanwhile, according to an October 27, 2023, report, as part of the investigation into the presence of Maoist cadres in the Attapadi Forest, the Police have resorted to helicopter surveillance at Mannarkkad in the Palakkad District. The investigation team carried out aerial surveillance over the Attapadi Forest area from Areek and monitored the forest border of Malappuram District, Silent Valley, Attapadi and Upper Bhavani Forests. It is to be noted that Maoists have been present in forests and population centers of Nilambur, Kannur and Wayanad.

The Kerala Police have also resorted to aerial patrolling as a strategic approach to monitor CPI-Maoist activities within the Kannavam-Kambamala-Brahmagiri Forest area in Wayanad District. This decision followed the sighting of Maoist cadres at a tea plantation at Kambamala in the Wayanad District. The district Police have been experimenting with drone-based surveillance and are now planning to incorporate helicopters into their efforts. Padam Singh, the Wayanad District Police Chief, noted that ground-level combing operations had failed to produce desired outcomes. Consequently, the State Police were contemplating a joint operation with law enforcement in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, to address growing security concerns.

On August 12, 2023, the Police registered a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against an 11-member CPI-Maoist group (nine of the group members were identified by the Kerala Police’s anti-Maoist force, the Thunderbolts, while efforts to identify two others, including a woman, were intensified) that staged a demonstration with guns at Keezhpally Vietnam in the Aralam Panchayat of Kannur District. Maoists belonging to the Kabani Area Committee put up a poster demanding ‘Aralam Farm for Adivasis’. The group reached the town in the evening of August 11 and spent half an hour there. They also forcibly bought materials from a shop belonging to Abdul Rahman. Significantly, the Police has registered at least four such cases in 2023.

The constant efforts of the Maoists to persuade the tribal communities to join them, highlighting various difficulties related to civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights, are evident om the increase in the number of cases recording a Maoist presence in residential areas. Despite SF consolidation in the state, the failure to address the grievances of the tribal communities creates opportunities for the Maoists to maintain a presence in the region.