Surveillance of the area has intensified after discovering sophisticated explosives buried in Thalapuzha near Makkimala, Wayanad. Thalapuzha police suspected the Maoists and registered a case under The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
It is mentioned in the FIR that the explosives were meant to endanger Thunderbolts. Kerala Thunderbolts is an elite commando force of the Kerala Police under the India Reserve Battalion. Thunderbolt combing operations and inspection have been intensified in the area.
On Tuesday, the explosives were discovered near a route frequently used by the anti-Maoist commandos. On Wednesday, a group of senior police officers, led by T Narayanan, the chief of the Wayanad district police, visited the location and assessed the circumstances. “The police have strengthened regional surveillance,” said G Balachandran, Kerala Special Branch DySP, Wayanad.
Some officials suspect that the explosives were land mines and gelatin sticks, but Kerala police have not confirmed the particulars. Authorities are believed to have identified the components of the explosives after scientifically examining them. A controlled explosion defused the bombs.
The explosives, believed to be ammonium nitrate, were found inside gunny sacks and bore the labels of Vetrival Explosives, a manufacturer in Tiruchirappalli. The authorities are investigating if the Maoists obtained the materials for the bombs from local quarry owners or whether they were delivered to them by couriers from Tamil Nadu. Makkimala is near the Kerala-Karnataka border.
The police assume that the bomb found in Makkimala was planted by Maoists. It’s estimated that the explosives were planted either to demonstrate their strength or to avenge the elimination of Kavitha, also known as Lakshmi, a Maoist leader. Kavitha, who was seriously wounded in the police firing in the forests of Kannur on 13 November, has succumbed to injuries while under treatment.
According to a press release from Jogi, the spokesperson for the CPI (Maoist) Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee, Lakshmi, an Andhra Pradesh native, has been “martyred.” The report claimed that when the Kabani Dalam members of the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) were having a meeting inside the Ayyankunnu jungle, the Thunderbolts launched an unexpected attack on them.
Though Kavitha was rescued from the site, she succumbed to injuries later. Her body was cremated in an undisclosed location in the Western Ghats, with the honours usually given to martyrs, Jogi added.
Kavitha is the wife of Ramu alias Lijesh, another PLGA member who surrendered to the police in 2021. She was a member of the Thungabhadra squad in Karnataka before establishing the Western Ghat Zonal Committee. She joined the Kabani squad terrorists in 2015.
Police had searched the jungles for many days after learning that a Maoist cadre was wounded in the event on 13 November. Authorities had set up surveillance at adjacent hospitals in the hopes that the Maoists would go there to get their wounds treated.
Later, residents of Gundika hamlet confirmed that a six-member Maoist team arrived and put up the posters. The posters bearing the CPI (Maoists) banner said that Kavitha had been “murdered” and that there would be “strong retaliation.” Maoists threatened to exact revenge for their comrade’s “murder” in posters they tacked up in the vanvasi settlements of Thirunelly, Wayanad.
Reports show that the Maoists have been reduced to four leaders in Kerala. Ajitha, a member of the zonal committee, and Kuppu Devaraj, a member of the CPI (Maoist) central committee, were slain in an encounter in the Karulayi jungles in Malappuram in 2016. In 2019, four Maoists, among them Manivasakam, were eliminated in the firing at Manjakkandi in the Palakkad district. 2019 saw the police eliminate C P Jaleel, a Kabani Dalam member, in Vythiri in Wayanad, while 2020 saw the police shoot and kill Velmurugan.
It is suspected that the land mines were planted to show they are robust even when their numbers decrease. The police also added that the commander of the Kabani Dalam, Malappuram native CP Moideen, was trained in assembling explosives and IEDs, and the investigation is in that direction.
The highly explosive stockpile was found on the way of the Thunderbolt patrol in Makkimala. The wires ran thirty meters underground and ended under a tree. The Special Operation Group believes that the Maoists planned the blast, which could be carried out covertly.
Moideen lost his palm while assembling a bomb at the Karnataka border near Thirunelly in 2014. Maoist Shinoj was killed in the blast that day.
The police are also surprised by the Maoist modus operandi in Wayanad, which is used by Maoists only in areas under their influence, including Chhattisgarh. The area in Wayanad has a history of Maoist presence, including recent ones.
In late April, HinduPost reported that Maoists led by Moideen arrived near Mananthavady. These armed terrorists told villagers there was no point in voting and called upon the estate workers to boycott the elections. Plantation workers told them, “We will elect”, and asked the Maoists to leave.
On 22 September 2023, a group of armed Maoists vandalised the office of the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) tea estate at Kamba Mala near Makkimala in the same region at noon. Six armed Tamil-speaking Maoist terrorists barged into the office and destroyed furniture, computers, and a phone.
Local vanvasis and plantation workers live in fear. They do not venture out after dark, and vehicles move in convoys. When will their anxiety end?
