Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan described the deaths of Maoists at Agaly in Kerala's Palakkad district as “extremely unfortunate” but said it happened because the Thunderbolt Commandos had to fire in self-defence. “They started the fire and our commandos had to retaliate leading to the unfortunate events,” the chief minister said in the Assembly on Wednesday. This is the first time that the chief minister had spoken about the killings of Maoist cadres during his tenure.
In two days, Kerala's Anti-Terrorist Squad had shot down four Maoists inside the forest in Agaly, Palakkad. Pinarayi Vijayan told the House that the Maoists had been active in Kerala since 2013. “They had formed 'dalams' under its Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee, and were planning to expand its activities in the area. They have state-of-the-art weapons like AK-47 and AK-56,” the chief minister said.
Initially, the chief minister sounded concerned about the deaths. “Any loss of human lives is painful,” Pinarayi Vijayan began his reply to the adjournment motion on the issue moved by Muslim League MLA N Shamsudheen. But his contempt for Maoists soon became evident. “They are trying to weaken democracy and destroy our law and order. To preserve democracy and maintain law and order is the state's responsibility,” he said.
Pinarayi is never known to have wavered from his harsh no-nonsense tone whenever he speaks in public. Even his laugh could be forbidding. So it was a surprise, even amusing, when he abruptly changed to a humorous tone to make fun of the opposition's claim that the Maoists were only asking for rice when they were killed. During his speech, Shamsudheen had said that robbing some sacks of rice was the biggest crime of these Maoists.
“Ayya, lesham ari tharumo (sir, please give me some rice),” he said, mimicking the half-Tamil lingo of a hungry beggar. “You are trying to make them saintly. These are people who have come from outside, armed and ready to attack,” Pinarayi said.
Shamsudheen, who sought leave to move the adjournment motion, said the Thunderbolt Commandos had not followed certain attack etiquettes. “They are supposed to fire only below the waist. But the bullet wounds on the slain Maoists were on the chest and head regions. Shoot at sight orders have been given just because these people belonged to a banned organisation,” he said, and then rhetorically asked: “Do we have the right to shoot even a criminal.”
Shamsudheen said there was a widespread notion that the deaths were the result of fake encounters. “The government is obliged to respond to this,” he said.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala did not say that all the killings were part of fake encounters. He said the Nilambur deaths in 2016, when Maoists Kuppu Devarajan and Ajitha were shot dead inside the Nilambur forests, were a case of retaliatory fire. “I had collected information from many people, including the police, to quite definitively say that the police were fired at first,” Chennithala said.
But he said shooting down of C P Jaleel in Vythiri, Wayanad, was shocking. “It was murder. He was shot from the back. There are even reports that he was asked to run and then the police shot him from the back,” Chennithala said.
He said there was no proof that the Thunderbolt Commandos were fired at in Agaly. He also asked why Manivasakam, the fourth Maoist reported dead in Agaly, was killed. “I am told that he was suffering from chronic diabetes and was keen to surrender,” Chennithala said. Earlier, the chief minister had exhorted the Maoists to surrender by opting for the “generous” rehabilitation package the home department had evolved for them.
The opposition leader said there was not a single killing of Maoists during the UDF tenure. “We had jailed them but had instructed the police to extend to them all the benefits of a political prisoner,” Chennithala said.