Kochi: The incipient Maoist movement in Kerala has suffered a major setback with the death of senior cadre Sinoj alias Rajan in an accident while handling explosive materials in the deep forests of Wayanad on June 16.
Sinoj, one of the nine persons in the first lookout notice issued against the Maoists in Kerala by security forces, was a member of the armed platoon of the Western Ghats special zone committee of the banned CPI (Maoist). He was also in-charge of the political department of the Kabani Dalam operating in Kerala.
His death was confirmed by Joji, spokesperson of the committee, in ‘Kattu Thee’ (Wildfire), a clandestine information bulletin brought out by the extremist outfit.
According to the bulletin, Sinoj died instantly in the impact of the explosion around 10.07 a.m. on June 16 and his body was blown apart. Hailing Sinoj as a role model revolutionary, the bulletin, however, regretted that “due to the hostile climatic conditions, we were unable to bring the body to his family members. The body was cremated in the forest with full military honours,” the bulletin said.
Sinoj, a native of Pathankallu near Thalikkulam in Thrissur district, dropped out from college while studying for the final year degree course and became an activist of the Naxalite outfit in Kerala in the 1990s. He was associated with CPI-ML (Naxalbari) but parted company with them to become active in the erstwhile People’s War Group. When PWG joined with MCCI to form CPI (Maoist) 10 years ago, Sinoj also became part of the new outfit.
He was one of the first persons from Kerala to be provided with armed training by the CPI (Maoist) and was actively associated with armed squads of the outfit in Karnataka. His death has taken place barely one month after the merger of CPI-ML (Naxalbari) and CPI-Maoist.
