KALPETTA:The police have stepped up combing operations in the forest areas of the district following the latest sighting of Maoists near the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University at Pookode here during the early hours of Wednesday.
According to the police, the incident occurred around 3 am on Wednesday when a three-member team carrying firearms, reached the main gate of the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University and pasted several posters supporting Maoists ideologies along the roadside here. The gang also put up a banner near the institution’s main gate in connection with the 14th-anniversary celebrations of CPI (Maoist).
The gang also claimed to have planted explosives at the main gate and threatened the security guard to blow up the college if anyone dared to remove the posters and banner. Later, an inspection by the bomb squad and the police confirmed the ‘suspected explosive device’ to be a dummy.
The veterinary university is located close to Sugandhagiri forest where the police have confirmed the presence of Maoists.
The team, comprising two men and a woman, reportedly snatched the mobile phone of the security guard when he tried to speak on the phone. They checked the phone and returned it before leaving. Though there are reports that the gang spoke to students who had set out to their homes in the early morning, the police are yet to confirm it.
“We have intensified combing operations in the region by pressing more force following repeated instances of Maoist sighting. Security arrangements have been beefed up across the district,” said Kalpetta DySP Prince Abraham. A case has been registered in connection with the incident.
The number of sightings of Maoists has increased in Kozhikode and Wayanad districts over the past few months. These mostly included sightings by local people living in the villages in both the districts.