The Home Department on Saturday said a team of police officials from Attappady and a five-member gang of suspected Maoists exchanged fire deep in the forests bordering the Kadukumanna tribal hamlet in the Silent Valley forests, about 15 km from Mukkali.
Palakkad District Police Superintendent N. Vijayakumar said the exchange of fire took place between 10.30 and 11.30 a.m. and it appeared that the Maoists fired first to stall the police party and escape from the area.
Agali Circle Inspector K.J. Devasya and Sub-Inspector Boban Mathew led a team of 30 officials for the combing operation following information that Maoists were camping in the Silent Valley forests bordering Attappady. The team included the Thunderbolt police wing formed exclusively to deal with Maoists.
None of the police officers involved in the operation was injured in the incident. Though the police said that they were not able to arrest any Maoist, they claimed that two of the Maoists sustained injuries in the exchange of fire.
The police recovered three bags containing Maoist pamphlets from the area. Additional forces reached Mukkali by afternoon to intensify the combing operations.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said in Thiruvananthapuram that the gang fired at the police who went to the forest region following secret information.
Eleven months ago, a forest range office was vandalised and a department jeep gutted in an alleged Maoist attack at Mukkali in the buffer zone of the Silent Valley National Park.
