THRISSUR: The police have raided the office of Keraleeyem, a magazine published from Thrissur for nearly 15 years, in search of suspected Maoist sympathizers taking shelter in the office.

The police took three persons into custody after the raids conducted in the midnight with a slew of armed police personal guarding the building.

Viswanathan Althu, 65, of Kozhikode, Santhoshkumar, 32, of Thiruvananthapuram, and Ajilal, 24, of Thrissur, taken into the custody were questioned for nearly three hours before releasing them. Sharat, editor of Keraleeyem said that the police gave a clean chit to the three people.

Shahul Hameed, assistant commissioner of police, who led the raids told reporters that the raids were conducted on certain specific intelligence inputs.

Several persons however questioned the police raiding an office of a magazine in the midnight and taking into custody the people associated with it.

A protest march and meeting was held in Thrissur on Tuesday against the police action. A slew of persons including Medha Patkar, Prof MK Prasad, K Ajitha, CK Janu, Dr V.S. Vijayan and several other condemned the raid. The police action is a remainder of the days of Emergency, they said in a joint statement on Tuesday.