Adaimaty Breakout: This August 19, 1995, the photograph shows the output point of the tunnel dug militants from the camp to the trench of the fortress and a policeman depicting the tubes used for digging. | Photo Credit: Hindic Archives
Around 3:00 am 15th August 1995, police officers stopped at Night Patrol at Sivagnanam Road in T. Nagar in Chennai two men on the cycle-ricker. Constable noticed handbags and tried to explore its content. In a flash, one of the men bited the bound cyanide capsules around his neck and almost immediately fell dead. In confusion, the second man left for the cycle, which was held near the bag. Police found the vellore tailor shop on the dead man’s shirt. A few hours later, at the Egmore station, a police officer in ordinary prisons working at the “Q” branch, he noticed groups of 11 waiting aboard the Madurai train. He found that their Tamil accent was different. Suspication of something, quietly approached the railway police. As a pose of police officers, two of them bought cyanide capsules. One of them died and the other was later hospitalized. Several female constables have overwhelmed some of the fleeing men. Some of them were angry that they were caught, bitten women in futile effort to escape.
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It wasn’t long before it concluded that men were sharing a joint connection. All of them were the liberation of Tigers Tamil Eelam (Ltte), Sri Lankan’s clothing, which was banned in India in 1991 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. It turned out that 43 militants hardcore ltte, including four women, all of whom were located in a special camp in Vellore Fort, escaped after 153 feet long tunnel in Tipp Mahal. The tunnel was dug from one of the bathrooms to the ditch. “Two lots of six militants fled 13 August on the night of August, while Group 11 slipped after midnight on Monday. The rest fled,” Hindu said in his edition on August 16, 1995.
The brave escape sent shock waves because the camp was well guarded: he had five guards and two Central Reserve police forces to help the police Tamil Nadu. The main minister Jayalithaa immediately convened a meeting with the main secretary N. Haribhaskar and the CEO of the police V. Vaikunth to develop a strategy to reinstate the militants. The North Arcot-Ambedekar Police district (as known Vallore was then) was suspended along with officers responsible for security in the camp. The government announced a reward of 10,000 GBP for anyone who shares information about the escape of militants. He ordered a court investigation headed by Judge TN Singaravel, judge of the Madras High Court. It wasn’t the first time that Militants Ltte escaped in Tamil Nadu. In November 1992, 18 militants escaped from Tipp Mahal himself. In January 1991, the police launched fire at the Vallore camp, when 400 odd militants tried to interrupt open window bars and attack police officers. Some of them climbed Mahal on the Tipp terrace and threw stones and bricks on the police standing underneath. The attempt to set the sub-inspector of Kannapppan after immersing it with a petroleum was thwarted. In police shooting, a militant Indian was killed, 21 years.
Yet it was the first time the militants escaped by digging the tunnel. “Sophisticated planning was shown by the fact that leaks were organized into groups and lit into different areas. While one group believed that the city arrived by train, another made it by bus. He said, “People in Vellore expressed surprises and distrust when reporters told them about the leakage of militants by digging the tunnel using old and rusted tubes and other improvised instruments. They learned whether the tunnel was dug behind the castle wall of the fortress.
‘Presmen reluctant’
When journalists wanted to look at the tunnel on the first day, the police refused permission and quoted a court investigation. On August 19, however, journalists from Madras were accepted to check the tunnel they had on the first floor of Tipp Mahal only input point 1-1/2 feet x 1-1/2 legs. The output point of 3 feet x 3 feet was placed between the strength and ditch walls on the western side. “The entry and output points looked so abominable that the press reluctant to walk through the tunnel despite the readiness of the police to allow them. Sathhya and Perumal commanded this correspondent that they could walk through the tunnel within three minutes, although the route was Zigzag at some points.” Many of the leaked militants were captured later.
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Published – May 8, 2025 22:44 is
