Tribals blame Veerappan for woes

By Our Staff Reporter

ERODE, JUNE 28. The movements of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan ``are not known to us,'' say the tribes at Kuthiyalathur village in the Kadambur forest.

The villagers told this correspondent today ``there has been no movement of any smuggler in the area for the past one year''. They said most of the villagers, who were engaged in agriculture and tending cattle in the forest area, used to see some smugglers some years ago and that even Veerappan visited the area and collected food from the tribes. But for the past one year his movements had not been known to them.

The villagers of Kanakundar and Ittarai, welcoming the new STF strategy, pleaded that the force ``finish the Veerappan chapter'' for, they were the real sufferers because of the bandit's movements.

Meanwhile, STF personnel, camping inside the dense forest areas of Kadambur, Gethesal, Hassanure and Bhavanisagar, conducted search operations for the eighth day in succession.

A dozen `smart' sub-inspectors were posted to the hill area station at Anthiyur, Bangalapudur, Kadambur, Hassanure and Thalawady. The police said day-to-day work in the border police stations was not affected by the STF operations.

Consider surrender

offer: Nedumaran

Our Chennai Special Correspondent reports:

In Chennai, the leader of the Tamils Nationalist Movement, Mr. P. Nedumaran, today appealed to the Governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to halt all STF operations and consider the `surrender offer' made earlier by Veerappan. He even offered to negotiate for it.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Nedumaran, a key negotiator in securing the release of Mr. Rajkumar, Kannada thespian, who had been kidnapped by the Veerappan gang last year, argued that the special operations in the jungles had a lot of socio-economic side-effects and had already cost the state Rs. 300 crores.

Mr. Nedumaran suggested that the two State Governments set up a 10-member committee, consisting of retired judges, sarvodhaya workers and human rights activists, to deal with the issue of Veerappan's surrender. But he wanted the States to offer a general amnesty to the brigand on the lines of what was granted to bandits like Phoolan Devi. If they agreed to ensure that, he would mediate on the surrender.

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