Maoist Threat: Security Tightened at Toll Plaza

THRISSUR: In the wake of Maoist attack on the corporate office of Nitta Gelatin at Kochi and a resort in Wayanad, the Thrissur district police have sounded an alert and intensified security at the Paliyekkara Toll Plaza on the National Highway 47 in Thrissur.  Speaking to ‘Express’, Thrissur rural superintendent of police N Vijayakumar said there has been intelligence report that the Maoists or its frontal organisations may target the toll plaza, as part of its 10th anniversary in Kerala.

Following the threat by the Maoists, the police have tightened security around the toll plaza by deploying armed guards besides the customary security alert in all police stations including those close to the forest areas, where the peripheral patrolling has been intensified, he said.

According to the intelligence report, toll plazas and other establishments that had become a centre of public protests in the recent past figured in their hitlist. In addition, some of the organisations which have an ideological leaning to the Maoist movement have been taking part in the anti-toll strike programmes here over the past few years. In this backdrop, the police intensified the security cover, said Vijyakumar. Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the other day that the police were closely monitoring recent attacks allegedly linked to the Maoists. The attack on the corporate office of Nitta Gelatin at Kochi on November 10 and an attack on the Thirunelli Agraha Resort in Wayanad on Tuesday morning by a four-member armed gang was suspected to get the sympathy of the locals. Various organisations have been taking out protest marches to the toll plaza demanding its closure following repeated hike in the toll being levied from the public.