The shadow of 1998 Coimbatore bombings is back to haunt Muslims after recent blast

“Enna bhai, marubadiyuma?” (Roughly translated as: what bhai, are you guys at it again?) This was the question Muzzamil (name changed), a civil contractor, had to face from his non-Muslim friends in the aftermath of the October 23 Coimbatore car blast outside the Kottai Easwaran temple in Kottaimedu, a thickly populated, Muslim-dominated area. For Muzammil, the question immediately triggered memories of the 1998 serial blasts in Coimbatore and the aftermath of it, from which the Muslim community is still recovering. He was 14 years old when Coimbatore witnessed serial blasts on February 14,1998, when 12 bombs were set off across the city, killing 58 people. Fundamentalist organisations like the Al-Ummah, All India Jihad Committee, Islamic Defence Force operating out of Kottaimedu were held responsible for the bombings, that came just four months after communal riots in November 1997 in which 18 Muslims were killed.

The October 23 blast outside the Kottai Easwaran temple has brought back the shadow of the 1998 bombings, that resulted in the demonisation of the entire Muslim community in Coimbatore — especially the people living in Kottaimedu, Karumbukadai areas.

Speaking to TNM, Muzammil recalled how he had to face similar Islamophobic questions even during his college days. This was the time when Hindu parents and teachers would ask their children to be ‘careful’ with boys from Kottaimedu and Karumbukadai. “My college friends used to ask me if Kottaimedu and Karumbukadai are like mini-Pakistan,” Muzammil recounted.

After his graduation, Muzammil worked at a private company for two years before starting out on his own. But the dark shadow of the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blasts followed him even at his workplace. “My manager and I used to have arguments all the time and I had to keep telling him that 99.99% of the community does not accept terrorism,” he said. The point Muzammil was arriving at is that it took several years for the Muslim community to get back on their feet, and the recent car blast case, they fear, may set the clock back yet again.

This is also the overwhelming feeling among the jamaats and the Muslim community in Coimbatore. At a time when differences between Hindus and Muslims were getting blurred, and a sense of acceptance was in the air, according to members from the community, the October 23 Coimbatore car blast has come as a huge setback for the peace process. “It feels like we are back to square one,” said Abdul Hakim, a member of the local Jamaat committee.

Police teams at the blast site on October 23, 2022

However, unlike the 1998 scenario where the Jaamat was pushed into a corner and rendered defenseless in the aftermath of the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts, this time around, they have decided to send across a strong message denouncing terrorism. The Jamaat members said it was a conscious decision not to accept the body of Jamesha Mubin, who died in the car blast and is believed to be the person behind the blast. Two Jaamats refused to bury Mubin’s body at their kabristan (graveyard). The Poomarket Jaamat accepted his remains only on humanitarian grounds.

“Except the family members of Jamesha Mubin, no one from Ukkadam, Kottaimedu and Karumbukadai areas attended the funeral and performed ‘Salat-ul-Janaza’ which is the Islamic funeral prayer. The funeral prayer is considered as an obligation for every Muslim to seek pardon for the dead, but no one wanted to participate in it, because we don’t agree with what he did,” a member of the Jaamat, who did not want to be named, said.

Several Hindus in the city are also intent on ensuring peace and harmony in the aftermath of the blast. Speaking to TNM, a Hindu priest who has been living in Kottaimedu, said that both communities have been co-existing without any major issue over the last several years in the locality. Recalling a conversation with a Muslim acquaintance, the priest said, “His reaction was one of dismay, he was aghast with Mubin’s action. After this incident, many Muslims in the area have reached out to us and asked us not to worry.”

Normalcy returns in Coimbatore days after the car blast.

As a gesture of peace and brotherhood, on November 3, members of the local Jaamat, Masjid committees and Ulemas visited Kottai Easwaran temple to meet the temple authorities and publicly condemned any act of terrorism.

Coimbatore’s violent past

On October 23, upon hearing the news of the car blast, many shuddered. A police officer who has served in Coimbatore said he had chills down his spine when he got to know about the explosion. The reason for this fear and panic has its roots in the violent past of Coimbatore, a place that has been vulnerable to communal tensions since the 1980s.

According to Justice PR Gokulakrishnan Commission which probed the 1998 bomb blasts, the genesis of communal tensions in Coimbatore began in 1980s. The report stated that what started as a business rivalry between Hindu and Muslim traders in the textile hub of Coimbatore, later turned into communal hatred. In 1983, the ties between both communities took an ugly turn with Hindu fundamentalists making abusive speeches against Islam and Muslim fundamentalists retaliating. This set off a chain of violence, resulting in brutal murders of people from both communities.

In her 2015 paper titled ‘The Emergence And Growth Of Communal Politics In Coimbatore: 1980-2000’, Alamu R wrote, “Since the 1980s, Kottaimedu, a slum area in Coimbatore, shot up to prominence with Hindu nationalist forces associating and branding it as a space for anti-nationalism and hatred. Simultaneously, it also became a hub especially for Wahhabism, that propagated Islam as a code of life, similar to the propagation of Hindutva as a way of life for Hindus. Opposing the traditional authority of power, the Jamaat, in the name of puritanism, fundamentalist groups began to surface in Kottaimedu.”

The paper said that competitive hate speech between Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist groups was one of the reasons for the 1997 Coimbatore riots, and the religious polarisation during the time. “If the state had interfered in curbing the hate speech of fundamentalist groups, the communal polarisation would have not probably magnified and isolated people on religious grounds in this industrial city. Commencing with religious hate speech, Coimbatore became a promising and sustaining site for both Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist organisations. Competitive fundamentalism thus began to brew religious hatred in Coimbatore,” she said.

The strained ties between Hindus and Muslim became worse after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. This led to the formation of Al-Ummah, a Muslim fundamentalist organisation founded by SA Basha, who successfully exploited the situation in Coimbatore and radicalised young Muslims to take up terror.

As tensions ran high, a traffic constable named Selvaraj was killed by three Muslim youth belonging to Al-Ummah in 1997. The murder of the police constable led to a revolt by the police force in Coimbatore. The police personnel staged a dharna, refusing to obey the orders of their superior officers. Violence broke out in Townhall and South Coimbatore areas where shops and establishments owned by Muslims were targeted by Hindu mobs. Totally, 18 Muslims were killed in the violence and in the police firing that took place between November 29 and December 1, 1997.

For years before the 1997 riots, Muslims in Coimbatore were being harassed by the police at check-posts in the Kottaimedu, Alamu wrote in her paper. “The major accused in the 1993 bomb blast of RSS office [in Chennai], were identified to be from Kottaimedu area in Coimbatore. With Coimbatore soon turning into a space for the spread of communal hatred, the state government under AIADMK installed five check-posts in Coimbatore. Major objectives behind its installation were to isolate the trouble prone areas and watch the activities of the anti-social elements. It was a reactive move after the seizure of pamphlets revealing Al-Umma‘s anti-national objectives and intentions…While the state government‘s intent was to curb the presence of anti-social elements, the check-posts began stigmatising the Muslim population. At an experiential level, the check-posts instead of rendering protection began to harass the minority population,” the paper said.

On February 14, 1998, in an act of revenge the city witnessed one the deadliest bomb blasts executed by the fundamentalist organization Al-Ummah at 11 places in Coimbatore. The bombs went off just ahead of BJP leader LK Advani’s visit to the city for an election rally — 58 people were killed and 200 were injured. Al-Ummah Chief SA Basha was found guilty by the court and was sentenced to life imprisonment along with 12 others.

Road to peace

The 1997 violence and 1998 serial bombings have left a deep scar in the minds of both Hindus and Muslims in Coimbatore. An atmosphere of mistrust was created, and over the years, there has been consistent efforts, both by the communities and the administration, to diffuse tensions and broker peace.

Sultan Ameer, the convener of all Jaamat and Muslim organisations, speaking to TNM recalled the efforts taken by Muslim bodies to restore peace in Coimbatore. “The Muslim community had lost faith in the police because of various reasons and their inaction to prevent 1997 violence. Earlier, Muslim leaders wouldn’t meet police officers due to a lack of confidence. Now, we are in regular touch with the police and it has helped us considerably to diffuse tensions,” he said.

He also said that the community used the Friday Jummah prayers to sensitise the youth and other members of the community on the importance of maintaining harmony in the society.

Police personnel deployed at Kottaimedu, Karumbukadai after October 23rd car blast

Recalling the situation that prevailed in Ukkadam, Kottaimedu and Karumbukadai immediately after the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blasts, Sultan Ameer said, “During those days, areas where Muslims were living in large numbers would be filled with check-posts. If we have to travel for 2 kilometres, we will have to cross at least 10 check-posts to reach our destination. The situation continued for almost 15 years, even now there is a check-post with Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel deployed at Al-Ameen colony. We have faced huge difficulties in carrying out our business. Only in the past 10 years, have things improved.”

When compared to the 1998 bombings, the scale and magnitude of the October 23 car blast incident may be relatively small. But the Muslim community fears that it may have far-reaching consequences for them, both socially and economically.

For the residents of Kottaimedu, Karumbukadai and surrounding areas, even today, it is very difficult to obtain loans from banks or microfinance institutions as these areas fall under the ‘Red Zone’ category. “To obtain a credit card from any bank, a normal resident of Coimbatore may have to put in 10% effort, whereas for those who live in Karumbukadai and Kottaimedu areas, they have to put in 100% effort and there is no guarantee that we may get it. We don’t want communal tension and riots, we have suffered enough,” Arif, a young businessman from Karumbukadai told TNM.

Several police officers and district collectors posted in Coimbatore also played a major role in bringing peace and stability to the region which has seen one of the worst communal riots and terror attacks in the history of Tamil Nadu. For instance, the present DGP Sylendra Babu, when he served as a Commissioner of Police in Coimbatore, ensured the Kottai Easwaran Temple car festival during Thai Poosam was conducted peacefully from 2011. “The temple car will be taken into the narrow bylanes of Kottaimedu every year and we never had any problem even once. The police made sure that the guidelines were strictly adhered to. Around 3.000-4,000 people participate in the procession,” one of the employees at the temple told TNM.

The then Coimbatore Commissioner of Police Sylendra Babu at the temple cart procession in 2011

Speaking to TNM, Tamil Nadu DGP Sylendra Babu said that after the 1998 bomb blasts there was lot of hesitation on the part of the police to allow the temple cart procession in Kottaimedu. “I got a representation from the priests and other aadhenams. With the cooperation from both sides, we ensured the peaceful conduct of the procession. This helped us in gaining the confidence of both Hindus and Muslims and was a move to promote communal harmony,” he said.

Another senior police officer added that a constant dialogue with Hindu and Muslim community leaders is a must when it comes to Coimbatore. Any attempt to ignore or look the other way could lead to dangerous consequences. “Coimbatore may look peaceful, but all it takes is one spark to reignite the fire,” the officer added.

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