India: Insurgency Halted In Kerala – Analysis
An April 10, 2025, report indicated that no suspect movement of any LWE (Left-Wing Extremist) cadres was noticed during a combing operation in the forest areas in Wayanad (Kerala). A three-day joint combing operation, ‘Operation Safe Forest’ was organized by the Tamil Nadu Police in the tri-junction forest areas across Wayanad (Kerala), Chamarajanagar (Karnataka) and the Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu), with active participation from the neighbouring Kerala and Karnataka Police, to monitor the movement of Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres in the trijunction area. The operation started on April 7 and ended on April 9.
An official release by the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force, stated, “Despite adverse weather conditions, including rainfall and the presence of wild animals, the operation was carried out successfully. Relevant intelligence was gathered during the operation for further action. No suspect movement of any LWE (Left-Wing Extremist) cadres was noticed during the Combing Operation.”
Indeed, three months and 13 days in the current year have passed, and no CPI-Maoist-related incident or activity has been reported (data till April 13, 2025).
Kerala has not recorded a single fatality in Maoist-linked violence through 2024. The last fatality in the State in such violence was reported on December 29, 2023, when a woman CPI-Maoist leader, Lakshmi aka Kavitha, succumbed to her injuries at Aralam in the forest area in Kannur District. Lakshmi was seriously injured during an encounter that took place on November 13, 2023, at Ayyankunnu in Kannur District, and later succumbed to her injuries while seeking treatment.
According to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling data on LWE-linked violence, the State has recorded a total of 10 fatalities (all Maoists) in seven separate incidents (data till April 13, 2025). Of the 10 Maoist fatalities, one was reported in 2014, two in 2016, five in 2019, one in 2020, and one in 2023.
Significantly, the State has not recorded any fatality in the civilian and SF categories in LWE-linked violence since March 6, 2000, (data till April 13, 2025).
Meanwhile, the Maoists were unable to execute any violent incident in 2024, as well in 2023. On January 15, 2020, Maoists attacked and vandalized a tourist resort, breaking window panes and setting furniture ablaze, at Attamala town under Meppadi Police Station limits in Wayanad District. Since March 6, 2000, at least four incidents of arson, two of explosion, and two of abduction, have been recorded in the State.
No incident of recovery of posters/pamphlets/literature was recorded in 2024, as against three such incidents in 2023. Since March 6, 2000, at least 32 such incidents have been recorded in the State.
Security Forces (SFs) arrested four Maoists in 2024, in addition to three in 2023. Significantly, on August 2, 2024, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Kerala Police arrested C.P. Moideen (49), a cadre of the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee of the CPI-Maoist, while he was travelling on a Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus from Kollam to Thrissur, in Alappuzha District. He is accused in 36 cases, including those registered under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), and was allegedly leading the activities of the banned organisation in Kerala. Since March 6, 2000, at least 56 Maoists have been arrested in the State.
The State recorded its second surrender on April 7, 2024, when Suresh, who hails from Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka, was injured while he and others were passing through a forest region of Kannur, and surrendered to the Police in Kannur District. Seated in a wheelchair, Suresh said, “I was a Maoist for the past 23 years and wanted to surrender for a long time. I have surrendered now. I was unable to do anything of consequence after becoming a Maoist. We could not make any impact in Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Karnataka even after many years.” The first surrender was recorded on October 25, 2021, when P. Lijesh aka Ramu, a senior CPI-Maoist leader, surrendered before Superintendent of Police (SP) Aravind Sukumar without arms, in the Wayanad District. Lijesh, a native of Amarakkuni near Pulpally in Wayanad District, claimed that he was the ‘deputy commander’ of the ‘Kabani Dalam’ of the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee (WGSZC) and had worked for the organisation in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Meanwhile, SFs foiled Maoist designs and recovered arms and ammunition on two occasions in 2024, in addition to one such incident in 2023. Since March 6, 2000, at least eight such incidents have been recorded in the State.
According to the SATP database, on assessments of underground and overground activities of the Maoists in 2024, one district (Wayanad) in the state was categorised as marginally affected. In 2023, three districts (Kannur, Kozhikode and Wayanad) were marginally affected.
The Maoist insurgency in South India gained momentum in 2011 with the formation of the WGSZC, covering areas coming under the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu (KKT). It was designated as the fourth ‘Guerrilla Zone’ in the country, the others being the North Telangana Special Zonal Committee, Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, and Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee. The insurgency escalated further in 2014, following the merger of the CPI-Maoist with the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist-Naxalbari (CPI-ML-Naxalbari), a radical Maoist faction from Kerala, on May 1, 2014. The Maoist move was part of an ambitious plan to extend the purported Red Corridor from Jharkhand to Wayanad. However, the first setback for the WGSZC was recorded on July 8, 2014, when senior CPI-Maoist leader V.S. Sinoj aka Ramesan aka Rajan, was killed in an accidental blast while assembling an explosive device in the deep forests of Wayanad District.
The setbacks continued with the arrest of the Committee’s senior leader, Roopesh, and his wife, Shyna, from a bakery in Karumathampatti in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, in the evening of May 4, 2015. To make matters worse for the Maoists, Murali Kannamballi aka K. Muralidharan aka Ajith akaThomas Joseph, a ‘central committee (CC)’ member, was arrested along with his young aide, Ismail Hamza Chiragpilli aka Pravin aka James Mathew, by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), from Talegaon Dabhade near Pune, on May 8, 2015. Further, in a significant loss, Maoist ‘CC’ member Kuppuswamy Devarajan aka Shanker, who was coordinating the party work in WGSZC, was killed along with Ajitha aka Kaveri, a woman leader, in an encounter with the Police inside the Nilambur Forest area in Malappuram District on November 24, 2016.
By May 2017, CPI-Maoist cadres had formed a new ‘combat and operational’ unit, ‘Varahini Dalam’, headed by C.P. Moideen in the KKT tri-junction, to avenge the deaths of Shanker and Ajitha in the November 24, 2016, incident. Meanwhile, the Maoists suffered another two blows in 2019, with the killing of C.P. Jaleel in an encounter in Wayanad District on March 6, 2019, and the killing of four of its cadres, Manivasakam, Rema, Karthi, and Aravind, in Palakkad District on October 28 and 29, 2019. After facing continuous setbacks in the state, the Maoists’ central leadership decided to revamp the state leadership to strengthen activities and deputed Sanjay Deepak Rao aka Vijay Rao (60), a Central Committee (CC) member, with the aim of strengthening the group’s armed force in the state. However, Deepak was also arrested in the Hyderabad District of Telangana on September 13, 2023.
Following continuous setbacks, an October 19, 2023, reports indicated that the movement in the Western Ghats was led by C.P. Moideen until a new ‘CC member’ took charge. However, with the arrest of C.P. Moideen on August 2, 2024, and no further communique from the central leadership, the insurgency in the state has currently come to a halt.
Meanwhile, taking prompt action to prevent efforts of revival and to contain Maoist activities, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken several steps against LWE elements in Kerala. On August 13, 2024, NIA carried out searches at the premises of a CPI-Maoist member in Kerala and seized several incriminating digital devices and documents. The searches were part of a case related to a conspiracy for waging war against the government by the members of the proscribed CPI-Maoist. Several incriminating digital devices and documents were seized from the premises of accused Konath Muralitharan aka Ajith aka Murali Kannamballi, ex- CPI-Maoist ‘central committee’ member. The accused had conspired to raise funds and recruit cadres to promote CPI-Maoist activities.
Further, on May 3, 2024, the NIA filed a charge sheet against four CPI-Maoist cadres, Thiruvenkidam aka Chandru, Shreemathi aka Unnimaya, Latha akaMeera, and Sundari aka Jenny, in a case relating to firing on commandos of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Kerala Police in the Thalappuzha area of Wayanad District in 2023. NIA took over the investigation from Kerala Police on February 10, 2024.
On April 9, 2024, a special NIA court in Kochi in Ernakulam District of Kerala found four CPI-Maoist cadres guilty of allegedly threatening a Police officer after trespassing into his house at Vellamunda in Wayanad in 2014. Maoist leader Roopesh and his accomplices Shyam, Kanyakumari, and Ibrahim, were found guilty in the case. The accused had formed an unlawful assembly with prohibited weapons and trespassed into the house of the Kerala Police officer at Mattilayam in Thondernadu, Wayanad District, Kerala, on April 24, 2014. The NIA stated further that the accused threatened to kill the Police officer, alleging that he was helping anti-Maoist operations. They (the Maoists) had asked the officer to resign from his job. The group also set fire to the officer’s motorcycle and threatened his mother at gunpoint. The accused then left CPI-Maoists pamphlets inside the officer’s house and pasted posters on the front wall of the house, calling for an armed revolution against the government.
The Kerala Police have been successful in containing the Maoist threat; however, it’s not over until it’s over. The critical gaps in capacities and deployment of the Kerala Police remain vulnerabilities. According to the latest Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) data, as on January 1, 2023, Kerala had 150.68 Police personnel per 100,000 population, below the inadequate national average of 154.84. Further, with a sanctioned strength of 61,692, the State Police has just 53,817 personnel in position, a deficit of 12.76 per cent. The sanctioned strength of the apex Indian Police Service (IPS) Officers in the State was 172, but just 116 officers were in position, a deficit of 32.55 per cent.
Nevertheless, the Maoist threat in Kerala is at a terminal stage. However, being a part of the KKT tri-junction, the region has seen rebel regrouping and resurfacing during adversity in the past. The current lull cannot be grounds to disregard the potential threat, and existing critical gaps in capacities and deployment need to be addressed to ensure complete state consolidation.