14 captures

06 Oct 2001 - 22 Mar 2016

Sep	OCT	Jul
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2000	2001	2003

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About this capture

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Organization: Alexa Crawls

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TIMESTAMPS

http://www.geocities.com/tamiltribune/

Definitions :
Hindians: People whose mother tongue is Hindi; much of Uttar Pradesh , Madya Pradesh and some surrounding areas in northern India is their homeland. Hindian politicians control and dominate the Indian government because they form the single largest block in the Indian parliament.

Abbreviations

TNLA - Tamil Nadu Liberation Army

Outline

1. Introduction

1 . Introduction

Tamilarasan was the founder of Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA), known in Tamil as Tamil Nadu Viduthalai Padai (some newspapers also call it Tamilar Viduthai Padai or Tamilar Liberation Army). Tamilarasan believed that independence of Tamil Nadu from Indian rule is essential for the betterment of the people of Tamil Nadu and that armed struggle is necessary to achieve independence.  He was killed in 1987 but the TNLA he founded is still active in Tamil Nadu. 

During the last several months (last few months of 2000 and the first few months of 2001) TNLA was in the news a lot in connection with the kidnapping and later voluntary release of Kannada actor Rajkumar. There were some passing remarks (usually a line or two) about the circumstances under which TNLA founder Tamilarasan was killed on September 1, 1987 in Ponparappi. What has appeared in the mass media is not the whole truth. They seem to be based on police reports. There is an  independent report by a Tamil Group that investigated the killing; they seem to give the complete and truthful picture of what happened on that fateful day. I present here both versions and my arguments as to which version is more likely to be the complete truth. Let the reader be the judge.

2. Some Background Information

It is necessary to provide some background information in order to understand the happenings of September 1, 1987.

Tamailarasan founded the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (Tamil Nadu Viduthalai Padai) (TNLA) in the mid-1980s to fight for the liberation of Tamil Nadu from Indian rule. He attracted some able young men to his group. TNLA robbed Indian Government owned  banks to fund its operations and raided police stations to get guns. They never harmed bank employees or customers during robberies. TNLA often distributed some of the stolen money to people and Tamilarsan and his group was very popular among local people, including people of Ponparappi where he hailed from. They respected Tamilarasan and his group to the extent that villagers sometimes took their disputes to TNLA for arbitration. They knew that TNLA would issue a fair ruling.

Now let us see what happened on the day Tamilarasan was killed.

3. Mainline Newspaper Accounts

The mass-circulation mainline newspapers and magazines publish a line or two about how Tamilarsan was killed. Typically they read like "Tamilarasan was lynched by Ponparappi villagers when he and his gang tried to rob the bank". These news items are based on information from the police.

4. An Independent Report

5. A Reality Check: Which Report is True?

I was not there. So I cannot say which one of the two reports is true from personal knowledge. Ponparappi villagers would never publicly contradict the police version. They know what would happen if anyone did. They would be falsely charged as accomplices to Tamilarasan, and sent to prison. Everyone knows what happened to local tribals in the Sathyamangalam forest area who did not "fully cooperate" with police operations against Veerappan there. They were charged as accomplices to Veerappan and are still languishing in prison for more than four years awaiting trial (yes, it is more than four years and they did not have an opportunity to prove their innocence in a court of law.). So Ponparappi villagers would not publicly say anything contradicting the police version of how Tamilarsan and the four TNLA men were killed. The independent report by the Tamil Group was based on confidential conversations with people in that area.

According to mainline newspapers (based on the police version), five bank robbers, each carrying a gun, were chased by a group of unarmed villagers and beaten to death. Let us make a reality check of this account. Will unarmed villagers go after five armed gunmen risking their lives? Extremely unlikely. Have we ever heard of a situation in India where villagers attacked bandits armed with guns, to protect a bank? No. It has never happened. No villager would risk his or her life for a bank; a villager may risk the life to rescue an abducted child or even to recover one's own property but no unarmed villager would or has ever gone after gunmen because they robbed a bank. It has never happened before, and it did not happen here. It is a fabricated story. 

It is now clear that villagers going after five gunmen and beating and killing them is unrealistic. However it makes sense for a group of Indian intelligence agents going to the village and waiting to ambush the TNLA men. Surely they would have been wearing bulletproof vests under their civilian clothes. They would have been special agents trained in disarming gunmen and in hand-to-hand combat. They might have blunt objects that could kill a man. In all probability they might also have concealed guns to use if their lives were in danger. Such Indian intelligence agents, trained to disarm and kill in hand-to-hand combat, laying ambush for the five gunmen and killing them makes sense; it meets our reality check.

6. Why didn't the Indian Intelligence Agents Open Fire?

7. Why didn't Tamilarasan Group Open Fire?

The mainline newspaper reports do not say a word about the fact that the TNLA men did not open fire even as unarmed men beat and killed them. They all had guns. Why didn't they open fire on these unarmed people attacking them? Tamilarasan was a true humanitarian. During bank robberies he made every effort not to harm bank employees or other innocent bystanders. No one was ever hurt in previous robberies. He thought that the people who were attacking his group were local villagers and did not want to shoot at them although they could have easily done that. Even in those last minutes of their lives, he and the TNLA men with him chose to sacrifice their own lives than to shoot at unarmed villagers (they did not know that they were intelligence agents masquerading as villagers). They did not open fire, instead chose to lay down their own lives; they sacrificed their own lives rather than shoot and kill local villagers. This is true humanitarianism.

8. Final Remarks

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE MAY INTEREST YOU:

Why Independence (Freedom) for Tamil Nadu from Indian Rule? (by Thanjai Nalankilli ), TAMIL TRIBUNE, April 1999

(NOTE:  The name Tamilarasan  is sometimes spelled as Thamilarasan , Thamizharasan or Tamizharasan .)

Your comments on this article or any other matter relating to Tamil are welcome

( e-mail to : tamiltribune at asia.com Please replace " at " with the @ sign .)

Copyright ? 2001 by TAMIL TRIBUNE. All rights reserved. No part of this article should be copied or distributed in any form by any means without written permission from TAMIL TRIBUNE. Those interested in re-publishing this article read http://www.geocities.com/tamiltribune/gen/permit.html for details or e-mail us.