Videos showed armed Communist Party of India-Maoist (Maoist) cadre arriving inside tea plantations near Manathavady, Wayanad. They urged locals to boycott the Lok Sabha elections.
Locals confirmed a group of four led by Commander CP Moideen arrived near their ‘layams‘ or line houses provided by the company that owns the estate. The armed Maoist team reached Kambamala near Thalappuzha around 6.15 am and shouted slogans.
Locals said Maoist leader CP Moideen was in the group. Only three are visible in the video, but someone is heard commanding orders in the background.
Malappuram native Moideen, Soman from Kalpatta and Ashiq from Thrissur were in the Maoist team. Two Maoists were armed with rifles. They spoke at the crossroads between the layams. They said there was no point in voting and called upon the estate workers to boycott the elections.
When the workers told them to accompany them to the town if they were interested in campaigning, one Maoist said that he and his accomplices needed to “organise.”
Plantation workers were seen telling them, “We will elect”, and asking them to leave. Someone shouted orders from the background, and the Maoists left the scene.
Several workers on their way to the tea estate were there when the Maoists arrived. A recent intelligence report warned about the presence of communist terrorists in the region for the past few days. In the meantime, the terrorists have come openly, terrorising the locals.
Kerala Forest Development Corporation Tea estate (a Kerala government undertaking)
On 22 September 2023, a group of armed Maoists vandalised the office of the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) tea estate near Kambamala at noon.
As many as six armed Tamil-speaking Maoist terrorists barged into the office and broke the glass door panels of the reception counter of the office. They destroyed furniture, computers, and a phone.
The Maoists demanded better facilities be provided to the workers of the Kambamala tea estate plantation. They shouted slogans demanding better houses for the estate workers reportedly living under asbestos sheds. (For a debt-ridden communist government and a Congress MP who has visited Pattaya more than his constituency since 2019, such issues are not the priority)
The extremists fled after sticking posters Posters in Malayalam and Tamil on behalf of the CPI(Maoist) Kabani area committee. It read: ‘Distribute plantations to landless workers and tribal people (to the government), join the armed rebellion to escape from the wretched lives in the estate lanes to be an owner of plantations (to the workers).”
The Kambamala tea estate was established in the 1970s to assist with rehabilitating Sri Lankan repatriates. Approximately 200 families of refugees have been residing on the estate.
Authorities from the Thalappuzha and Mananthavady stations quickly searched the area.
Within four days of the KFDC office attack at Kambamala in Thalappuzha near Mananthavadi, members of the same banned Maoist outfit members revisited houses in the same locality.
A five-member gang visited farmers’ houses around 7 pm on Sunday and stayed until 10.30 pm. They collected provisions and recharged their mobile phone batteries. Some gang members took a few newspaper cuttings regarding the Maoist attack. The Maoists also urged the labourers to join their outfit.
According to the police, the gang that visited the house was the same one that attacked the KFDC office. It was reported they were part of the Kabani Dalam, a banned organisation operating out of the jungles of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka.
The Maoist gang revisited the village while Kerala Thunderbolt commandos (200 odd commandoes who battle left-wing extremism)and other security agencies were combing nearby plantations and jungles. After this, the Thunderbolt arrested two communist terrorists.
The media justified the terrorists, claiming The KFDC staff on duty were not harmed by the Maoists. KFDC staff confirmed that the Maoists threatened them.
After arguing with the workers for 20 minutes this time, the Moideen-led Maoist group moved towards the Makhimala side. Police reached the spot and started an investigation.
Legally, in March 2022, the Kerala High Court struck down the accusations brought against CPI-Maoist leader Roopesh under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in three cases filed at the Kuttiadi and Valayam Police Stations in the Kozhikode District.
This area borders the Kottiyoor and Periya forest ranges in the districts of Wayanad and Kannur, respectively. The Kerala-Karnataka border is a trek away. Is the Kambamala corridor in Wayanad a haven for Maoists?
Congress has enormous vote banks in Wayanad (technically, Hindus are a minority in the Wayanad constituency). Congress workers and their Muslim allies have mastered the art of bringing their voters to polling booths. By contesting an alleged rights hawk nepotic from Delhi, the communists have admitted defeat.
Who will benefit from a low voter turnout?
