Coimbatore: 24 years back and now, the radical Islamists are of the same family

Huge similarities are emerging between the Coimbatore cylinder blast case and the 1998 serial blasts that took place with the aim of targeting BJP leader L K Advani.

New Delhi, Oct 27: Coimbatore is back in the news in a very big way. This time it is the car blast that took place outside of the famous 'Kottai Eshwaran Temple'. In 1998 it was the serial blasts that took place with the aim of targeting BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani.

24 years have passed and the links between the two cases have emerged yet again. The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an order by which the National Investigation Agency will probe the case.

Following the serial blasts of 1998, S A Basha the founder of the Al Ummah was among the 180 arrested and convicted by the courts. 60 died in the blast while 220 were injured.

Following the Sunday blasts, searches were conducted at the residences of those associated with the Al Ummah. The house of Basha's brother Nawab Khan too was searched. Khan is currently in jail for his role in the 1998 blasts.

The police also questioned Khan's son and Basha's nephew Mohammed Thalka. An official tells OneIndia that it may not be a mere co-incidence that the son of the main and co-accused in the 1998 blast is an accused in the 2022 case.

The case so far:

The Coimbatore police have invoked the stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA a day after Jameesha Mubin, 25, died in a cylinder blast outside the famous 'Kottai Eshwaran Temple'.

Jameesha Mubin, the deceased, was in fact questioned by the National Investigation Agency in 2019 for his alleged ties with a radical network that was behind the Colombo serial blasts.

The police have also arrested Mohammad Thalka (25), Mohammad Azarudheen (25), Mohammad Riyaz (27), Feroz Ismail (27), and Mohammad Navaz Ismail (27), of GM Nagar from Coimbatore district.

What has made the case even murkier is that the WhatsApp status of Mubin before his death written in Tamil and loosely translated to English read, "if the news about my death reaches you, forgive me for my mistakes. Forgive my shortcomings and particulate in my Janaza and pray for me."

The investigators have also found documents from Mubin's home in which several spots were mentioned which they had planned on carry out a recce. The Victoria Hall Railway Station, Racecourse were among some of the places they had planned to reduce.

DGP Sylendra Babu said that during the searches at Mubin's home in the Kottaimedu area in Ukkadam they recovered potassium nitrate, aluminium, and sulfur, which are used to make crude bombs. We have also recovered nails and ball bearing from the spot where the explosion happened.

NIA set to probe the case following order by MHA.