Suspected Maoist activists threaten policeman

A four-member gang of suspected Maoists confronted a policeman in his house in hilly Waynad District and threatened him at gun point with dire consequences if he did not quit his job, police said today.
The gang entered the house of Pramod, attached to the traffic unit of police, at Mananathavadi late last night and asked him to quit the job, police sources said.
Taking a serious note of the incident, Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala sought a report about it from the District Superintendent of Police, they said.
The ultras also pasted handbills on the wall of Pramod's house in support of their cause and also set afire his motorbike parked outside.

They asked him to abandon police duty and take up agriculture, the sources said.
The state government had in January told the assembly it would step up patrolling and combing operations in forest areas in Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts in north Kerala following intelligence reports about the presence of Maoists.