COIMBATORE, Feb 14: At least 32 people were killed and over 100 injured after a series of blasts - spread over 15 minutes -- rocked Coimbatore this afternoon, minutes before BJP president LK Advani was scheduled to address an election rally in this city.In fact, the first explosion occurred at around 3.50 pm when a car bomb went off about 100 feet away from the TV Samy Road venue of Advani's rally. Soon there were more explosions, at the government hospital and the busy commercial areas of the city including Perumal Street, Ratnapuri, the Gandhipuram bus stand and the railway station.
Police tonight said the Army had been called out following arson and looting at Ukkadam and Gandhipuram. Shoot-at-sight orders were issued after reports of violence came in from other parts of the textile city. The CRPF has been deployed in most of the city areas and Army reinforcements are being rushed from Madukkarai.
The blasts, coming just a week before elections, provided ammunition to all political parties. Advani,speaking to reporters at the airport, claimed that he was the target and said that the DMK and its ``vote-bank politics'' were responsible. Chief Minister M Karunanidhi called a meeting of senior officers and banned two Islamic fundamentalist organisations, the Al-umma and the Jihad Committee, saying they were the suspects. He accused ``foreign forces of hatching a conspiracy'' to thwart the democratic process of elections.
At the time of the first blast, Advani's special plane had just left Thiruvananthapuram. Commissioner of Police Nanjil Kumaran immediately instructed DCPs Sandeep Rai Rathore and Arumugam, who were in charge of his security, to ensure that the VIP's convoy did not move out of the airport. Advani was asked to stay on at the airport till 6.00 pm. He later left for Tiruchirappalli.
``The first blast took place barely 200 feet from the stage. It is only because I reached Coimbatore late that I was not present at the spot. Had the meeting started on time, the consequences would have beenunimaginable,'' said Advani in a statement after a visit to the hospital where he met the injured.
President KR Narayanan and Prime Minister IK Gujral condemned the blasts and several politicians have come down strongly against the ``act of terrorism''.At Advani's meeting site, at least seven persons were injured, two critically. A few minutes after the first blast, there was another explosion about 150 feet away from the stage on the Sambandham Road-DB Road junction.
Two explosives planted inside a car went off one after the other killing seven pedestrians.
Another bomb went off at the busy Coimbatore railway junction, two more at the Government Hospital and one each at a jewellery shop on Big Bazar Street, a travel agency in Gandhipuram and a textile emporium on Oppanakkara Street.
At the Government Hospital, four persons including three nurses, were killed and more than six injured. While the blast at the travel agency claimed two lives and injured three, the explosions at the railway junction,Roja Jewellery and the textile emporium left several injured. A shopping complex in Gandhipuram was reduced to a burning wreck.
Bus services in the city were immediately suspended following the blasts, leaving a large number of people stranded on the roads. While banners of all political parties had been pulled down, on Mill Road, this reporter saw a couple of two-wheelers and a cycle burning.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
