Among the villagers, who in the midst of violence carried on their peacetime occupations and worked on the prawn farms, there were others who had no employment. The prawn ponds were a great temptation to them. Not that it would have mattered if a few prawns were taken, whether to be sold or eaten by the villagers; yet every prawn in these ponds seemed to have a price on it. For, these acres, which had once belonged to no one, were now in the hands of the foreign investors, those nameless people whose presence was only felt as a power that existed beyond this coastal village. The land was now private property, enclosed and fenced in. No trespassers, and the trespassers would be the villagers themselves, were allowed in. But there was interference from certain other groups that had interests in this territory. Some of the guerrillas operated in the vicinity. Not only were the different guerrilla groups waging war with the State troops, they were in conflict with each other too. On the one hand the guerrillas had their advantages, on the other they were disadvantaged. They lacked air power, but they could depend on their knowledge of the terrain, their being part of the community and their ability, with a small band of fighters, to contain a large number of their enemy. But their tactics also involved the civilians who were often caught in the cross fire. The guerrillas managed to slip away, vanish into thin air as it were, while the villagers were caught, rounded up and made to pay the penalty.

On several occasions, one particular guerrilla group would break into the prawn farms. It became a nuisance and an inconvenience to the foreign investors. All they were concerned about were their profits, not the political ideologies of a particular group. They wanted their prawn farms protected from any marauder, it did not matter who.