Attacks on Forest Department offices in Palakkad and Wayanad and on outlets of multinational fastfood chains early on Monday have raised fears of Maoist presence in Kerala.
In the attack on the Forest Range Office in Silent Valley National Park at Mukkali, near Attappady in Palakkad, the miscreants smashed the front door and windowpanes of the office to get in and destroyed two computers, a printer, a photocopier and two telephones. No Forest Department personnel were present at the office at the time of the incident. Local residents said an eight-member gang, including a woman, carried out the attack. After the operation, the attackers retreated to the forest shouting slogans against ‘police raj’, they said.
In another incident, a group pelted stones, smashing the windowpanes of the KFC and McDonald’s outlets at Chandranagar in Palakkad town area in an early morning operation. Police recovered posters condemning ‘U.S. imperialism’ from the site of the attack.
Palakkad police later arrested two youths allegedly linked to the attack from a bus at Mankara in the afternoon and charged them under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Police said the two had confessed to their involvement in vandalising the KFC outlet.
In Wayanad, the suspected Maoists vandalised a Forest Department outpost at Kunhome under the North Wayanad forest division around the same time. Local police said the miscreants broke the windowpanes of the building and set fire to a wooden cot inside. They fled after pasting posters asking the police and forest officials to stop their ‘attacks on the people who were fighting for their right to land, forest and water’. The posters also declared the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the formation of the CPI (Maoist), the police said.
