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Veerappan country: A safe haven
for pan-Tamil militants

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

With forest brigand Veerappan delaying the release of kidnapped Kannada matinee idol Dr Rajakumar, there are now greater chances of the vast jungle on the junction of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala becoming a safe haven for pan-Tamil militants of all hues, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

"Every passing day without surveillance, particularly on the Tamil Nadu side, means much more freedom for these militants to shore up their defences," said an informed source.

According to this source, Tamil militants have taken advantage of the withdrawal of police pickets on the Tamil Nadu side of the jungle to smuggle in more arms and strengthen their positions.

"Some hardcore LTTE cadres who escaped from police custody at Mamandur in Kancheepuram district in 1993 were believed to have escaped into the 'Veerappan country', before making good their escape back to the Jaffna jungles in Sri Lanka," said the source.

He said the Sathyamangalam forest has proved to be as impregnable as the Jaffna jungles. The jungle, spread over 18,000 square kilometres, he pointed out, is larger than many of the north-eastern states in the country.

The source referred to the presence of Tamil Nadu Liberation Army chief Maaran in Veerappan's company in the jungle. "It is now clear that Maaran and his men have been working with Veerappan. They may use the brigand to launch a war on the nation from the deep jungles -- either directly as the LTTE has been doing in Sri Lanka, or by launching guerrilla attacks as in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

He said pan-Tamil groups are now feeling the need to whip up a frenzy among the Tamil population, which has been by and large cold to their overtures.

The Kargil imbroglio and the Kandahar hijack crisis helped strengthen nationalist sentiments, pushing the pan-Tamil ideology to the background.

Anti-Tamil riots in Karnataka, in the light of Dr Rajakumar kidnap drama, were expected to whip up that frenzy, but the younger generation reacted with maturity.

With last week's parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka giving a clear hint of the island-nation's Tamil population's unwillingness to know-tow the LTTE line, and the Sri Lankan Army reversing the LTTE advance after initial setbacks, there is now a need for a possible fallback area for the Tigers.

Here again, the source did not rule as totally out-of-hand the pooling together of resources by the LTTE and stray Islamic fundamentalist militants in Tamil Nadu.

"Both have been known to operate in close association with each other and with organisations of under-privileged groups on the political plane. While some of them may not have been inspired as yet by militant ways, others like the Naxalites in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, and the ULFA in distant Assam have already developed contacts with the LTTE."

If the freedom of Dr Rajakumar is important at the moment, action against Veerappan and his pan-Tamil associates is also a priority that must not be ignored, the source said.

The Rajakumar Abduction: complete coverage
The saga of Veerappan

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