COIMBATORE, February 14: At least 32 people have been killed and around 100 injured as over nine key areas of the Textile City were rocked by a serial bombing on Saturday evening, minutes before BJP president L K Advani was to address a public gathering. The bombings took place in a space of one hour, between 3.30 p.m. and 4.30 p.m.Advani escaped the bomb attack as his chartered flight, which was to have landed here at 1.30 got delayed and landed only at around 3.30 p.m. He was to have addressed the election gathering at around 3.30 p.m. The telecommunication system in the textile city was crippled, presumably due to heavy traffic.
Even as campaigning for the first phase of elections, covering 222 Lok Sabha seats and assembly seats in the states of Tripura and Meghalaya going to polls on Monday ended on Saturday, this shocking news has spread fear and chaos everywhere. The Government Hospital and railway station looked like battlefields on Saturday evening with charred bodies around, billowing smoke andgutted vehicles.
The Tamil Nadu government banned two Islamic fundamentalist organisations and brought in the army into the bomb-ravaged Coimbatore city. The banned organisations were the Al-Umma and Jihad committee, which have been declared `illegal.' In a statement to the television media here tonight, chief minister M Karunanidhi said his government was against religious chauvinism and would not allow such acts to be repeated, either by the majority community or the minorities.
Powerful bombs went off at number of places in the city at around 3.30 p.m. The first place to be rocked was R S Puram, one of the posh localities here where the BJP president was to address a large gathering. Three explosions are reported to have taken place in the vicinity of the venue, one after the other, according to eyewitness accounts and police sources. There are chaos and confusion. The law and order and government administrative machinery have been thrown completely out of gear and the extent of casualty and damage isyet to be known. The casualty wing of some of the leading hospitals in the city are full.
Even at 5.30 p.m. bomb squads were busy diffusing the remaining bombs kept on a pineapple cart at the T V Swamy Road junction in R S Puram. "As the first explosion occurred we thought it would be a transformer blast. However, there was commotion at the place and people started running helter skelter,'' said an eyewitness.
The worst part is that the cart was very close to where the stage was set for the BJP president and it went unnoticed. Though witnesses said one of the miscreants from a fundamentalist group who tried to run away was caught, beaten up and handed over to the police, an assistant commisioner posted at the venue denied this. At least 100 sq ft in the area has been cordoned off.
The worst site was the Government Hospital where a bomb placed in an Ambassador car parked in the hospital compound ripped the vehicle killing at least six people on the spot. Though yet to be confirmed, eyewitnesses claimthat hospital staff were also killed. Three trees at the site are bald and the front building of the hospital has been damaged.
Mutilated bodies of 10 victims were lying outside the casualty ward. Doctors and medicos were called in to handle the situation. A bomb went off at the scooter shed at the Coimbatore railway station causing damage to at least 25 two-wheelers. Panic-stricken passengers left the station and the place was deserted, except for the police personnel and government officials.
However, any casualty is yet to be reported. Bombs exploded in Raja Rajeshwari Towers, one of the main business centres, at Gandhipuram the heart of the city. Flames were seen billowing at the multi-storeyed building. Very close to the Gandhipuram bus stand, in V K K Menon Road, a bomb exploded at around 4.15 p.m. inside National Travels. According to an employee of the firm, four people were killed. He claimed that three more bodies were trapped inside. The police had not visited the spot even at 6.30p.m.
There are also reports of explosions having taken place near Rajendra Street, in Oppanakara Street, and nearby communally sensitive areas. According to a police official, the miscreants were waiting for the election fever to catch up so that the police force would be taken unawares.The kith and kin of those killed could be seen wailing in tension gripped streets where explosions occured.
"Terrorism has reached every home and street"
BJP president L K Advani said in Delhi on Saturday said he was the "target" of the serial bomb blasts in Coimbatore and asserted that terrorism had now reached every home and street.
"The miscreants, obviously anti-national forces, targeted the electoral process in Coimbatore. But looking at the scale and nature of the terrorist strike, their target was the BJP and its president," Advani said in a statement from the Capital.
"Terrorism is a war by proxy, a war without borders. The war has now reached every home and street.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
