Maoist banner urges tribals to take up arms against govt

Wayanad: Several Maoist banners urging tribals to resort to subversive activities were found in the village of Kunhome in Kerala's Wayanad district on Saturday morning.

The banners, calling the Paniya tribe to take up arms against the government, were found on the wall of the Thondernad panchayat bus stop and several shops in the vicinity.

"Despite a history of fighting the fire-breathing guns of the British with bow and arrows, members of the Paniya tribe still lack land in their name. Long years of pleading with the government have yielded little result. We urge the tribals to take bow and arrows as well as guns to challenge the government," the banner reads.

The banner also exhorts the CPM government not to delay disbursing compensation for the victims of monsoon calamities.

Police has begun a probe into the incident. This is the second time this year that Maoist posters have been discovered in the northern districts of Kerala.

In April, a poster was found in Kozhikode's Mattikunnu area near Thamarassery criticising the ruling CPM government's SilverLine rail corridor project.

In it, the outfit labelled the project as "anti-people" and expressed their solidarity with the people opposing it.

The outfit had also equated the policies of the Left government to that of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.

Maoist or Naxalites are radical leftists who favour armed insurgency and mass mobilization.  

Maoists currently operate in the forest belt around central India, north-east India, and tribal-dominated areas of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

Maoists aim to overthrow "semi-colonial and semi-feudal Indian states" through people's war.

Unlike the mainstream Communist parties in India, Maoist outfits don't accept democratic and constitutional norms.