Hunt for Maoists makes no headway

The police operation, conducted in association with the Forest Department, to track down Maoists in Nilambur has not yielded any result.

It is learnt from the Intelligence Wing report that the policemen are not trained enough to conduct search and rescue operations in dense forests, resulting in failure to trace the extremists.

Intelligence officials said that the presence of Maoist elements in Nilambur came up two years ago based on the Intelligence report that the Maoists are campaigning and luring tribal people to join the Communist ultras.

The Forest and police squads were instructed to comb the forest and trace out the persons working for the group. However, no Maoist could be traced.

According to an Intelligence official, the search was unsuccessful as the police personnel are not trained for jungle operations.

“They have no experience in handling the tribal people, and are dependent on the Forest officials. There are several remote settlements inaccessible to the police team. The threat of the Maoist presence still exists, and we are still monitoring the area,” the Intelligence official said.

However, Malappuram SP P Sethuraman said that they are constantly combing the Nilambur forest to trace Maoist presence.

“No one has been tracked down till now. The Maoist presence was noted following the arrest of a person two years ago. There is also a possibility that Maoist and extremist ideaologies are being propagated among the Adivasis. But we could not find any such elements till now,” said Sethuraman.