KOZHIKODE: Here is a really worrying news for Kerala Police which have been fighting the emergence Left Wing Extremists (LWEs) in the state in the last couple of years. Putting the Kerala Government in a tight spot, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has come out with an analysis saying that LWE violence is taking place only in Kerala and not in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.Though the three states- Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (KKT) form the tri-junction where Maoists have been establishing their strong presence, no LWE violence was reported in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu while 23 incidents were reported in Kerala between 2014 and 2017.
The report on LWE violence in KKT was submitted by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir in a written reply to a question raised by Kodikunnil Suresh in Parliament.
As per the MHA, while no violence was reported in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu since 2014, violence data for Kerala was 2014 - eight, 2015 – ten, 2016 – five, 2017 - 0 (upto 15-12-2017).The MHA’s assessment of the LWE violence in Kerala cannot be taken lightly by the Kerala Government as the state has been witnessing heightened activities of the banned CPI (Maoists) in the past two years.
“We don’t want to comment on LWE violence data of the Union Government. But we have been taking necessary steps which included strengthening the combing operations to flush out Maoists holed up in forest regions in Wayanad, Kozhikode and Kannur,” said Kannur Range Inspector General Mahipal Yadav. Another senior police officer said: “we have launched a detailed probe after armed suspected Maoists visited a house at Kodencherry in Kozhikode last week and took away all the rice from the house.”
Though the LDF Government led by the CPM took the offensive against LWEs to a new level by engaging in an encounter with Maoists in Nilambur forest range in November 2016, which resulted in the death of two Maoist leaders, the government was forced to soften its stand after the CPI, the second major constituent in the LDF Ministry and other social activists came out against the offensive operation. A social collective organised a public function in Wayanad to commemorate the two martyred Maoist leaders - Kuppu Devaraj and Ajitha- while the CPI in its Kozhikode district conference presented a resolution commemorating the two leaders.