Explosive device unearthed in Kerala's Wayanad; Maoists suspected

Wayanad: Kerala Police informed that an explosive device was found buried in a village in this hill district, where the presence of armed Maoists has been frequently reported, PTI reported.

In recent days, finding or blasting explosives has become the trend in the state.

On Tuesday, the device was detected in Wayanad's Makkimala area under the Thalappuzha police station limits during the combing operations of the Kerala police's elite force, Thunderbolt.

Although local media reports suggested that it was a landmine, the police have not confirmed it.

It was later neutralised, they said.

The presence of a Maoist group belonging to the Western Ghats' Kabanidalam has been reported in various forest fringe areas in Thalappuzha on many occasions.

Last month, an encounter occurred between the Kerala Police and Maoists in the Kambamala forest area.

In October last year, a group of suspected Maoists, armed with sophisticated weapons, had arrived at a private resort at Makkimala and taken control of the manager's mobile phone to send a statement to the media regarding issues faced by estate workers.

In Kannur, days after an elderly man died in a bomb explosion, police found two more bombs on an uninhabited property in this politically volatile north Kerala district on Saturday last week. During a search in the area, the police recovered two steel bombs (a kind of crude bomb) at a property on Ambilad Road in Kuthuparamba here.

The death of the 86-year-old man due to a bomb explosion near Thalassery here on June 18 triggered a widespread political row in the state as the opposition Congress and the BJP had pointed fingers at the ruling CPI(M) over allegedly making and keeping bombs in unoccupied houses and properties.

The elderly man died when he picked up and tried to open the bomb, which he found on an uninhabited property where he had gone to collect coconuts, according to police.