Kerala,TN police hunt extremists accused of killing cop

The Kerala and Tamilnadu police have launched joint search for two suspected extremists in connection with the killing of a Tamil Nadu police personnel on Kerala - Tamilnadu border near Kanyakumari on Wednesday night.

Special sub-inspector Wilson, a native of Marthandom in Kanyakumari, was shot dead by a two-member gang when he was checking vehicles at Kaliyikavila, about 20 kilometres from Kanyakumari.

The Kerala Police have issued a lookout notice for Nagercoil natives Toufeeq and Abdul Shemeem in this connection. Both were aged between 25 and 30. Rewards were also announced for informants, said the police in a statement.

The accused came from Tamilnadu side and shot the police personnel killing him on the spot. They fled to Kerala side in a Mahindra Scorpio (TN-57-AW-1559). Hence the Tamilnadu and Kerala police launched joint investigation. CCTV visuals of the accused were received by the police.

Sources said that there were recent intelligence inputs from Tamilnadu on suspected plans of left wing extremists to carry out attacks. Abdul Shemeem was suspected to be accused in a communal murder in Chennai in 2014 and Toufeeq was suspected to be accused in the murder of a BJP leader in Kanyakumari.

Senior police officers of Kerala and Tamilnadu were supervising the investigation. Tamilnadu DGP J K Tripathy, who was in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, was learnt to have held talks with Kerala state police chief Loknath Behera in this regard.