The shooting incident which unfolded at Chittoor in which the Anti-Smuggling Special Task Force (RSASTF) killed 20 smugglers and woodcutters in separate encounters is an act most brutal. By killing the poor migrant workers from Tamil Nadu it is clear that the trigger happy RSASTF acted without restraint. That the woodcutters were unarmed and were only working for their smuggling masters, makes the massacre more macabre. The presence of red sanders logs with white paint and code numbers at the site also makes one believe that the wood was brought from a government stockyard and planted at the site. The unprecedented action has led to the biggest toll in a single encounter in the history of the region and has obviously raised the hackles on the use of such brute force. In the aftermath of the firing, irate mobs of Tamils have gone on a frenzy damaging dozens of buses belonging to Andhra in parts of Tamil Nadu and this deserves a reproof too. Only a credible enquiry can help throw light on this dreadful incident.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
