KOZHIKODE: Lakshmi alias Kavitha, a Maoist cadre who was seriously wounded in the police firing in the forests of Kannur on November 13, has succumbed to injuries while under treatment. She is the ninth Maoist cadre killed in encounters since the Pinarayi Vijayan government assumed office in Kerala in 2016.
A press release issued by Jogi, the spokesperson of the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee of the CPI (Maoist), said Lakshmi, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh, has been ‘martyred’. It said the Thunderbolts — the special anti-Maoist force of the Kerala Police -- carried out a surprise attack on the members of Kabani Dalam of the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) when they were holding a meeting inside the Ayyankunnu forest.
Lakshmi was injured in the attacks and was shifted from the scene. The release didn’t say when she died. It said the body was buried at an undisclosed location with the honours usually given to martyrs. Police knew that a Maoist cadre was injured in the incident on November 13 and had carried out searches inside the forests for many days.
Posters warn of retaliation
They had also put surveillance on nearby hospitals, hoping that the Maoists would seek treatment for the injury. Lakshmi is the wife of Ramu alias Lijesh, another PLGA member who surrendered to the police in 2021. Before the formation of the Western Ghat Zonal Committee, Lakshmi was a member of the Thungabhadra squad in Karnataka. She joined the Kabani squad in 2015.
Maoists said the Thunderbolts unleashed attacks on them four times last month. They alleged that the “attacks were part of ‘Operation Samadhan’ carried out by the Union government controlled by the RSS”. In the posters pasted by Maoists in the tribal colonies in Thirunelli in Wayanad, they declared that they would retaliate for the ‘murder’ of their comrade.
Kuppu Devaraj, central committee member of the CPI (Maoist), and Ajitha, a zonal committee member, were killed in an encounter in the forests in Karulayi in Malappuram in 2016. Four Maoists, including Manivasakam, were killed in the firing at Manjakkandi in Palakkad district in 2019. C P Jaleel, a member of the Kabani Dalam, was shot dead by the police at Vythiri in Wayanad in 2019 and Velmurugan was killed in police firing in 2020.