CHITTOOR: This morning's shooting in Andhra Pradesh of 20 alleged sandalwood smugglers threatens to create a political crisis with neighbour Tamil Nadu.
Many of those shot dead in the thick forests in Chittoor in Southern Andhra Pradesh were reportedly from across the border, prompting a strong backlash. "While police have every right to arrest and prosecute offenders, shooting them dead like birds is unacceptable," said Vaiko, the chief of the MDMK party in Tamil Nadu. Other opposition parties have called for a judicial inquiry, though the Tamil Nadu government has yet to comment on the shooting.
In Andhra Pradesh, Deputy Inspector General M Kantha Rao said his officers had opened fire "in self-defence" after they were attacked in the thick forests with stones, axes and knives, about 300 miles north of Hyderabad.
Nine smugglers were killed in one place and 11 in a second clash a kilometre away.
VS Krishna, general secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Forum, said an earlier attack described by police as a gunbattle had turned out to be "one-sided firing" by police. Many of the victims of such incidents were poor migrant workers from Tamil Nadu, he said.
A tonne of the rare red sandalwood or red sanders, as it is known, can fetch nearly Rs. 2 crore for the finest Grade 'A' quality in the international market. It has been declared an endangered tree.
A tough plan to combat the smuggling of red sandalwood was a major campaign promise of Chandrababu Naidu ahead of last year's election, which he won. He then formed a special task force, which has been given plenty of modern weapons and resources, to fight the red sandalwood mafia.
