Chennai: A large cache of spent shells of hand grenades and rocket launchers believed to have been used by the LTTE in the 1980s have been unearthed in a reserved forest at Kolathur near Mettur in Salem district on Tuesday, nearly three decades after the Indian government aided the Tamil rebels with arms training in different parts of Tamil Nadu. It is believed that Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and his cadres had used this Kolathur camp for training purpose during 1984-86.
Forest officials digging to plant saplings found a large black drum containing spent shells of 245 grenades and 28 rockets in the reserved forest at Kolathur near Mettur in Salem district on Tuesday. Workers hired to dig the place first hoped that the drum contained a long-buried shell and were deeply disappointed, even a bit scared, when it revealed the ammunitions.
“That is the area where the LTTE cadres along with Prabhakaran were trained between 1984 and 1986,” recalled Kolathur Mani, a Tiger sympathiser, who claimed he had witnessed the rebels training. The unearthed drum contained “only used shells”, he said. Senior police officers, including some from the 'Q' branch that deals with extremism, visited the spot, which had been cordoned off for civilian access. Forest and police teams searched the area on Wednesday to check if more such arms-dumps existed.
