THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a rare move, the Kerala Police have availed the services of the Tamil Nadu Special Police (TSP) to help maintain law and order in violence-hit Palakkad district, where a PFI and an RSS worker each were killed within a span of 24 hours last week. The inter-state deployment of police is usually limited to general elections and violence having statewide ramifications. The current deployment of TSP personnel comes at a time when the state police is facing criticism for an alleged failure to prevent back-to-back murders.
Highly-placed sources said about 500 TSP personnel are already on the ground in Palakkad to help the state police prevent any untoward incident that could erupt as a fallout of the killings. A strange aspect of the deployment is that TN personnel are not stationed as reserves, rather they have been put on field duty, like their Kerala counterparts.
Sources told TNIE that the deployment of TSP men was down to logistic reasons and the fact that Palakkad borders Tamil Nadu, where both the political outfits have a strong presence. Hence, the TSP men could come in handy in case the cadre of these outfits enter Palakkad with ulterior motives, said a source.
However, the Kerala Police Headquarters claimed that no personnel from other states were deployed in Palakkad post the twin murders.
“There is no such deployment of forces from other states. Only our forces are present,” said an officer with the state police headquarters. Meanwhile, sources in Palakkad said the department could be denying the deployment to salvage its prestige as it does not want to be seen taking the help of police personnel from another state.
Currently, only the personnel from the Armed Police Battalions are posted in Palakkad. The department is yet to deploy the Special Armed Police (SAP) and the Armed Reserve Police personnel in the district, where tension continues to prevail after the macabre killings.