Coimbatore Serial Blasts Mastermind Basha Dead; Police Deploy Forces For Funeral Procession

S A Basha, the mastermind of the 1998 serial bomb blasts that rocked Coimbatore, died due to age-related ailments at a private hospital here, police said on Tuesday. He died on December 16 evening.

Police force has been deployed in the city in view of the proposed funeral procession of Basha on Tuesday evening, an official said. "He was on parole and not keeping well of late. He was admitted to a private hospital as his health deteriorated and died on Monday evening after being in prison for 35 years," said Indian National League party leader J Rahim. Basha, 84, and 16 others from Al-Umma had been serving life imprisonment in connection with the 1998 blasts.

He was granted parole by the Madras High Court recently. Basha's family members are planning to take out the funeral procession from South Ukkadam to Hyder Ali Tippu Sultan Sunnath Jamaath Masjid at Flower Market, police said, and added sufficient police force has been deployed to prevent any untoward incidents. Basha is the founder-president of the banned outfit Al-Umma and planned the serial bomb blasts that claimed 58 lives on February 14.

As many as 231 people were injured in the blasts, police said. In May 1999, the special investigation team of the Crime Branch CID filed a chargesheet against Basha accusing him of conspiring to kill BJP leader L K Advani using a suicide squad. Meanwhile, BJP Tamil Nadu vice president Narayanan Thirupathy has urged the police not to allow the funeral procession, as this will set a bad precedent in society if a criminal, terrorist, murderer is hailed as a martyr.

"No doubt anyone though a cold blooded murderer should be allowed to have his/her last rights but it should be done peacefully and not with a huge honours for which they don't deserve," Thirupathy said in a post on social media platform 'X'. The fundamentalist thoughts and violence, and communal problems started from the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blasts and Basha was the top most person responsible for that, he claimed.

Even today, there were hundreds of persons in various political parties and movements who had been members of the banned Al-Umma. "This procession may trigger the forgotten memories of 1998 and it may lead to greater communal issues in future. It is the responsibility of Chief Minister @mkstalin to see to it that this procession does not take place and the last rites of the dead terrorist Basha should be allowed to perform only with their family members and not with any big crowd," he said.