KOZHIKODE: Some bullet marks on a police jeep that returned from a tribal settlement after Maoist raid in June last year confirmed that Maoists were carrying guns and were ready to hit. This led to the subsequent raids, intense jungle surveillance and killing of two Maoist leaders-- Kuppu Devaraj and Ajitha-- on November 24, 2016 in the Karulayi forests of Nilambur in Malappuram district.
It was a constable who spotted the bullet marks on the vehicle while washing it in the morning who later reported it to a senior officer. The team returned to the spot in the jungle and also found bullet marks on the trees, according to a senior cop. “It was luck that saved that police team,” he said and added that this had forced the police to conduct serious hinterland raids.
However, the Thunderbolt commandos are not very active now as the hostile reaction from a section of ruling political leaders has demoralised them. “Instead of congratulating us, we suddenly became something like criminals,” an official who preferred anonymity told DC. Till then only a few believed that armed guerrillas were camping in the forest regions of the state. “We never thought that the Maoists, who were known for their fighting spirit, would run away when they came face to face with police,” he said. Apart from the duo Kuppu Devaraj and Ajitha, all others escaped to the jungle. The revolver of Kuppu Devaraj, which was later retrieved from the location of encounter, was in a cocked position, ready to fire. “True that the young commandoes who came face to face with armed Maoists for the first time showered bullets on them as the Maoist image in their mind was something brutal”, pointed out another official who was part of the action.
“There is a widespread feeling that the political leaders were unhappy as none of us were killed in the action,” he said. Many of the leaders expressed the same feeling saying, “why none of the commandoes were not even injured in the action?” The answer was that the perfect planning helped the police to strike without giving any hint to the Maoists. It was the tribal watchers of the forest who were familiar with the jungle who helped the police to locate the camp house of Maoists. Prolonged camping in the interiors and deputing policemen from tribal communities in the region for surveillance helped the police in locating them without any suspicion, he pointed out.
