1998 Coimbatore bombings
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The 1998 Coimbatore bombings occurred on Saturday, February 14 1998, in the city of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. 46 persons - 35 men, 10 women and one child - were killed and over 200 injured in 13 bomb attacks in 11 places , all of them within a 12km radius, 4 bombs were planted at R S Puram area, two near Bus Stand, 1 near Coimbatore Medical College Hospital and at Ukkadam area. These car bombs was the work of Muslim fundamentalist group "Al Umma" which had a strong presence in Coimbatore.
The bombings were apparently in retaliation to the earlier riots in the city the previous year, when Hindu gangs and Fundamentalist Muslim groups clashed with each other following the murder of a traffic policeman named "Selvaraj" , by a member of the radical Islamist group Al Umma (The Ummah).
The first of the serial bombs exploded at 3.50 p.m. on Shanmugham Road in R.S. Puram, 100 metres from the venue of an election meeting that was to be addressed by Bharatiya Janata Party president L.K. Advani. There were allegations that suicide bombers were ready to target L.K.Advani on that day.
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[edit] Political Impact
The ruling party at that time, the DMK came under severe criticism for this incident.
[edit] Aftermath
As a fallout, the Muslim fundamendalist group Al Umma was banned in Tamilnadu within a few days. This incident came as a severe blow to the upcoming economy of Coimbatore. Real estate prices dropped temporarily, new investments to the city were temporarily halted. However, normalcy was restored within a few months.
[edit] Convictions
S. A. Basha, the mastermind of the blasts and 72 others "were found guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy to trigger a series of explosions [t]here on February 14, 1998 and to create enmity between two communities."[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Basha, 72 others convicted for Coimbatore blasts The Pioneer - August 1, 2007
