kolkata

Updated: Apr 03, 2015 18:24 IST

On the run in Bengal and parts of Jharkhand and Bihar, CPI( Maoist) has announced “successful opening of a new warfront in Kerala”, in the southwestern part of the country, besides signing a pact of mutual help with the Communist Party Maoist, Manipur, active in the northeast.

“Overcoming innumerable obstacles and snatching initiative, PLGA fighters and urban action team combatants led by the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee (WGSZC) of the CPI (Maoist) have opened up a new warfront in the state of Kerala,” reads an article attributed to one ‘Political Commentator’.

The declarations were published in the January-March issue of People’s March - a Maoist publication - a copy of which is in possession of HT. The 2014 merger between CPI( Maoist) and CPI( ML) (Naxalbari) has helped opening of this new front, they said.

During December-January, 2014-15, Maoists carried out several attacks on forest offices, government-owned hotels and McDonalds and KFC outlets in Kerala. In all such actions, they distributed leaflets addressing various issues - from Obama’s India visit to the land ordinance and growth of tourism in this region allegedly at the cost of farmers and tribals.

“These actions were carried out as part of a Politico-Military Campaign (PMC) carried out over a three month period, from November 2014 till January 2015. The aim of the campaign was to prepare the masses for revolutionary war, defeat the initiative and aggressiveness of the enemy armed forces and advance the revolutionary movement,” the writer said.

The zone that the CPI(Maoist) is eying in the southwestern parts of the country is the trijunction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the Western Ghats. In Kerala, Maoist activities have picked up pace mainly in the districts of Malappuram, Wynad and Kannur.

Maoists said that they started shifting their squad members from Malnad area to the trijunction on the lap of Sahyadri hills in 2012 and deployment and interlinking of the squads were complete by the end of 2013.

“As such, it is already a rebuttal, in deeds, of the Indian state’s claim to have isolated and restricted the revolutionary movement to Central and Eastern India,” the article claimed.

The magazine also carried a joint statement by CPI(Maoist) and Communist Party Maoist, Manipur, pledging the help each other in their “battle against the Indian state”.