Word: bandits
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RELEASED. RAJKUMAR, 72, beloved Indian movie star kidnapped by the bandit Veerappan; after 108 days in jungle captivity; in Bangalore, India. Veerappan, who is accused of 120 murders but has eluded capture for 30 years and is regarded as a hero among Tamil separatists, took a $2.17 million ransom raised by two Indian state governments and retreated to his hideout, forgoing his demand for the release of government prisoners...
This tense scene is from the current Hindi film hit Jungle, a biopic about Koose Muniswamy Veerappan, 53, a notorious murderer, elephant poacher and India's most-wanted criminal. But in real life in the southern state of Karnataka, the bandit is playing out a much more riveting drama. Sunday, July 30, in a caper that could have come from a movie script, Veerappan led a dozen fellow bandits into the home of Rajkumar, 73, an ailing film icon, chattily asked Rajkumar's wife if she recognized him (she did, later recalling his unmissable mustache) and handed her an audiotape...
...movie terms, the bandit had pulled off a casting coup. Rajkumar is beloved by millions. "This is not just any kidnapping," said state information minister B.K. Chandrashekhar. Some of Rajkumar's fans demanded that the government hunt down Veerappan and rescue their hero. Others prayed for a happy ending. Said S.R. Govindu, president of the actor's fan club: "As in his films, I hope Rajkumar can reform Veerappan and bring him back to Bangalore...
...fans' best hope is that Veerappan will simply let Rajkumar go. The bandit has free run of an almost 2,000-sq.-mi. jungle in Southern India. Here, he has allegedly killed more than 2,000 elephants for their ivory tusks, felled thousands of sandalwood trees to smuggle their aromatic and expensive bark and murdered at least 120 people. Veerappan is more than a match for local police. For the past decade, a force of 600 commandos has been combing the forest in India's longest-running manhunt. It has yielded nothing. Why not? It is often said that...
...Their resistance is driven not by politics but by economic considerations," says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. "Essentially, they're less an insurgency than a bandit group. What's needed, therefore, isn't a traditional peacekeeping operation - which keeps apart the foot soldiers of two armies whose leaders have agreed to make peace - but an expeditionary force to subdue the rebels...