Kochi: The death of two persons in an alleged encounter between suspected Maoists and security agencies in Nilambur forests on Thursday, if turns out to be correct, marks the first such incident in Kerala. Armed encounter between left-wing extremists and the police was not an issue even in the heydays of Naxalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the state. Except for a few incidents of attack against the police stations, the Naxaltes in the state never engaged in a hand-to-hand combat with the police.
The only encounter between Naxalities and the police in the state was recorded in Tirunelly in Wayanad, when A. Varghese, a leader of the movement, was killed on February 18, 1970. But even in those days the police version of the encounter was a discredited story as there were several persons who have witnessed the arrest of Varghese from his hideout. R. Ramachandran Nair, a police constable in CRPF, who shot at Varghese as per the orders of his superior officers, later about the incident which led to a CBI probe and conviction a senior police official.
Janakeeya Manushyavkasa Prasthanam (JMP), a Kochi-based human rights group, meanwhile, has called for a probe into the encounter killings as per the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in 2014. The apex court has clearly stated that magisterial probe should be held into an encounter, it said, adding the guidelines also states that post-mortem of the persons killed in encounter should be recorded in vided. JMP president Thushar Nirmal Saradhy has urged the state government to follow the Supreme Court guidelines and order a magisterial probe into the incident.
