KOZHIKODE: Six hardcore CPI-Maoist activists, including Jisha from Wayanad, surrendered before Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
The surrender of the last known armed ultra-left cadre operating in Kerala marks a decisive turn in the third phase of the Naxalite movement in the state that began with the formation of the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee in 2011-12.
Kunnikkal Narayanan, Ajitha, Philip M Prasad and A Varghese led the first phase of the movement in the late 60s. K Venu, K N Ramachandran and others were in the forefront after the formation of the CRC-CPI (ML) that was disbanded in 1991. CPI-ML (Naxalbari) led by M N Ravunni and Kannamballi Murali was the only remnant of the militant Naxalite movement in Kerala though there were a few other peripheral groups.
The third phase in Kerala began with the formation of the state unit of the CPI-Maoist in 2004. The party came into being in India after the merger of the CPI-ML (Peoples War) and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI).
Their activities gained momentum in Kerala after carving out a guerrilla zone that included areas in the Western Ghats coming under Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states.
Kuppu Devaraj, a central committee member of the party, was in charge of the guerrilla zone and at one point of time there were four armed squads or dalams of Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) in Kerala. More than 50 persons attended the party camp organised inside the forests in 2015.
The party mounted 10 symbolic attacks in Kerala as part of the politico-military campaign (PMC) in 2014 to mark the tenth anniversary of the formation of the party. CPI-Maoist in Kerala was further strengthened when the CPI-ML (Naxalbari) merged with the party on May 1, 2014.
Arrest of key leader led to reversals for Maoist party
Reversals for the party began with the arrest of Roopesh, who was leading the party, in 2015 from Coimbatore. Two Maoist leaders including Kuppu Devaraj, were gunned down by the police in an encounter in Nilambur in November, 2015.
Four Maoists were killed in another encounter at Manjakkandi in Palakkad in October, 2019, C P Jaleel in police firing at Vythiri the same year, and Velmurugan in another incident at Padinjarathara in Wayanad in 2020. Kavitha, a Maoist dalam member, succumbed to injuries she received in the firing in Kannur forests in December, 2023.
The arrest of Maoist leaders including central committee members Murali Kannamballi and Sanjay Deepak Rao, Zonal Committee secretary B G Krishnamurthy and Rajan Chittilappilli also dealt a heavy blow to the movement in Kerala.
It was the arrest of Raghavendra alias Gautam from Kannur that crippled the party most as he was the vital link between the central and the state leaderships.
C P Moideen, who was leading the movement after the series of arrests, was apprehended in August, 2024, followed by other cadres Manoj and Soman. The remaining cadres had fled to Karnataka and their leader Vikram Gowda was killed in an encounter in Udupi district in November, 2024.