Recent blast in the Kottaimedu area, Coimbatore Infront of Sangameswarar (Kottai Eswaran) temple on Sunday, October 23, morning early at 4 AM where a 25-year-old engineering graduate was charred to death in a Maruti 800 hatchback after a car with LPG cylinder exploded. Initially, it was reported as an “accident”, though it found plenty of nails and used marbles and materials for explosives at the site. Neglecting the evidence at the site of the blast, the police tried to prove it as a case of an accident. The WhatsApp status also indicated that Mubin knew he was committing a mistake and did not want people around him to remember his failures and shortcomings. The screenshot, written in Tamil, is designed like a poster that reads, “If the news of my death reaches you, forgive my mistakes. Hide my shortcomings participating in my Janata, and Pray for me.
In Tamil it reads –
“Yen marana seythi ungalai adainthal
Yen thavarugalai manniyungal,
Yen kuraigalai maraiththu vidungal,
Yen janasaavil kalandhu kollungal,
Yenakaga prarthanai seiiyungal.”
On Monday, the police arrested five people in connection with the Blast-Mohammad Thalka (25), Mohammad Asarudheen (25) of Ukkadam; Mohammad Riyaz (27), Feroz Ismail (27) and Mohammad Navaz Ismail (27) of GM Nagar in Coimbatore. Thalka is reportedly the nephew of banned terrorist organization Al Ummah chief S.A. Basha, who was involved in the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blasts. The sixth person, Asif Khan, was arrested on October 27 and was involved in purchasing raw materials through online e-commerce portals. Nearly 75 kgs of low-intensity explosive device materials were recovered from the accused’s residence. The accused stayed in a house nearby to the temple.
Also, the explosives carried in the gunny bag were similar to the materials used by Zahran Hassim in the Easter bomb attacks in Sri Lanka in 2019, which killed more than 250 members and injured more than 500. Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American citizen, was arrested for a similar attempt on May 1, 2010, at Times Square. Mubin’s previous effort to execute an explosion was thwarted by police a few years ago. He was picked up then by NIA in 2019 for ties with radical Islamic network organizations like Zahran Hassim, who was also linked with ISIS. There is a vast network of various groups of terrorists, and it needs to be investigated more deeply. After BJP state president Mr Annamalaih had expressed his views on the blast suspecting a conspiracy, the police pitched back, reporting the same though initially, they thought of it as an accident. Later it was felt that Mubin was planning an attack, and by looking at the police, he stopped the vehicle, and the blast took accidentally. But the latest advancement shows he had done recce in 6 temples in and near Uddakam and was planning to execute the blast. The suspected conspiracy was that he prepared for a blast at the Kottai Eswaran temple as it was Deepavali on that day. He would have expected devotees would come to the temple and a massacre could have been created. But with Lord Siva’s grace, the attempt failed, and he became the prey of his trap. Mr Annamalaiah had also said though the center had warned the state government of the possible attacks during Diwali, it was an utter failure of the state intelligence, which was in deep somnolence. The state police failed to keep an eye on the suspects already on the radar of the NIA. Even Mr. Stalin, the present chief minister, objected to the NIA raids in 2019, supporting the radicalizes. The radical ideology grew under the support and appeasement politics of DMK, which led to the present grave situation in the state. At least the time has come for Mr. Stalin to wake up and look into the issues of the growing radicalism, communalism and terrorism in the state and curtail them in an early stage.
