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CRPF, RAF deployment brings back peace in TN district

Two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force and 500 Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed and shoot-at-sight orders issued today in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu. The district was rocked by communal clashes leading to police firings during the last two days, in which eight people were killed.

Inspector general of police (southern range) D Manoharan said no major incident was reported from any part of the district during the last 12 hours.

The police averted a clash between members of two communities by chasing them away with lathis in Ramanathapuram town, and rushed a man with stab injuries in Nainarkoil to the government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai.

Tension prevailed for some time following rumours that three bodies were found at Laandai, near Ramanathapuram. However, no body was recovered, the police said.

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said the situation in Ramanathapuram district had been brought under control following the deployment of the CRPF and RAF battalions.

He warned of stern action against those instigating violence in the district.

He also sanctioned Rs 200,000 each to the families of the two persons killed in the clashes and Rs 100,000 each to the kin of the five people killed in police firing.

Manoharan said 30 people had been taken into custody in connection with the violence and some lethal weapons were seized.

The toll in the caste clashes and police firings in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu has risen to eight, with two women succumbing to injuries at hospital on Sunday.

While Rakku, hailing from Paramakudi, who was admitted to the government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, succumbed to injuries late last night, another woman, Pechi, died at the primary health centre at Satrakudi this morning, police sources said.

Ban orders under Section 144 of the CrPC, have been imposed in the entire district since last night.

Shops in Ramanathapuram, Paramakudi and Muthukulathur have remained closed for the last two days following the violence.

All the buses went off the road. There was no bus service between Rameswaram and Madurai, the sources said, and that sporadic incidents of arson and looting were also reported last night.

Three people were killed in police firing at Soorakottai, on the outskirts of Ramanathapuram on Sunday evening, while two others were killed in police firing at Tirupullani on October 3. One person was hacked to death at Landhai in a group clash near Ramanathapuram yesterday.

In Madras, Karunanidhi warned of "severe action" against vested interests instigating caste clashes in Ramanathapuram district, and said the clashes occurred in the wake of trips made by certain persons from Ramanathapuram to the city and back.

He was addressing a public meeting late last night after unveiling the statue of the 18th century freedom-fighter and martyr, Dheeran Chinnamalai at Guindy in Madras.

Without naming anyone, he said the clashes were also being instigated by certain forces in the city out to create law and order problems to derive political mileage. "I am in a position to know these things," he added.

Expressing concern over the clashes, Karunanidhi said, "It is unfortunate that when we are striving hard to uplift the backward and suppressed classes, they are fighting each other."

Tamil Maanila Congress president G K Moopanar and MGR-ADMK leader S Thirunavukkarasu urged Karunanidhi to take stern action against those instigating the clashes.

Pattali Makkal Katchi founder-leader Dr S Ramadoss has charged the Tamil Nadu government with failing to take effective steps to control caste clashes in the southern districts leading to a series of police firings.

In a statement, Dr Ramadoss condemned last night's police firing in which two people including a woman were killed at Tiruppullani.

He wondered whether the southern districts were really under the effective control of the state administration.

AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha, meanwhile, demanded the deployment of the army in southern districts of Tamil Nadu in the wake of police firings to quell caste clashes in Ramanathapuram district.

Condemning the police firings, Jayalalitha, in a statement, alleged that the police department under the Karunanidhi government stood "perplexed, bewildered and was inert" in the district.

She claimed that the police had opened fire five times to quell violent clashes at the same village, the previous day also.

Jayalalitha charged the Karunanidhi government with failure to book anti-social elements who were creating enmity among the people, resulting in a sense of fear and insecurity among them.

The government, which failed to avert a big tragedy (serial bomb blasts) in Coimbatore in the past, was not displaying a sense of responsibility to check the deteriorating law and order situation, which was once again going out of control in the southern districts, she alleged.

Bharatiya Janata Party Tamil Nadu general secretary L Ganesan today urged the Karunanidhi government to deploy the army in Ramanathapuram district, if the state police was unable to restore peace.

Ganesan said the entire police force in the state should be deployed in the district and the government should seek the army's help without standing on prestige.

He also urged the government to put down violence with an iron hand, disregarding vote-bank politics or potential electoral allies.

Ganesan said inflammatory speeches had been made at the rally organised by the Puthiya Thamizhagam in Ramanathapuram recently, but no action had been taken against those who made such speeches. The violence now rocking the district seemed to be a fallout of the inflammatory speeches, he added.

UNI

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