The Kerala police said they had either injured or killed at least three suspected Maoists in a gun battle between the armed irregulars and Thunderbolt commandos in the Agali forests of Palakkad district early on Monday.
Top officials told The Hindu that the Maoist casualties could include a woman.
The men were later identified as Karthi and Suresh. The police are yet to recover the bodies.
Commandos safe
The commandos suffered no casualties in the firefight that unfolded sporadically in the dense Manjakandi forests in the Attappady range of the Mannarkkad forest division.
Officials privy to the operation said the Thunderbolt commandos had the area under their control.
Police on the way
The Agali police were on their way to the spot to secure the bodies, collect evidence, map the crime scene, recover the weapons used by the commandos and the insurgents, and send them for forensic ballistic examination. According to initial reports, the Thunderbolt commandos were on an area domination patrol and holding high ground when they sighted the “heavily armed” irregulars.
The commandos reportedly called out to the group to surrender. However, they encountered heavy fire from the thick undergrowth.
Officials here said the commandos fanned out in battle order, established a skirmish line, and returned fire. They tried to pin down the insurgents in a bid to force the Maoists to surrender.
The shoot-out occurred in poor visibility conditions.
Officials said some Maoists could have broken out of the encirclement and moved to contiguous forests in Karnataka or Tamil Nadu.
The Kerala Police have alerted their counterparts in both the States. The Thunderbolts were in pursuit. They were proceeding with caution so as not to get ambushed by possible booby-traps laid by retreating Maoists.
Meanwhile, the police are scouring tribal settlements and hospitals and clinics in Palakkad and Wayanad to find out whether there are more wounded Maoists.
The government is likely to order a magisterial inquiry into the incident.
( With inputs
from Palakkad)
