Coimbatore blast: What we know a week after the incident 

It’s been a week since a cylinder burst into flames in a Maruti 800 in Coimbatore, killing the driver. Once the driver was identified as Jameesha Mubin, a 29-year-old qualified mechanical engineer with suspected links to the Islamic State (IS) and other terror organisations, the plot thickened every other day.

It’s now suspected that Mubin and others arrested in the case are part of a small group of Muslims. They could have been intermittently in touch with larger terror networks behind a series of blasts in the Indian subcontinent over several years, investigating officers believe. 

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What TN police uncovered

As soon as the car burst into flames outside the Sangameshwar temple (also referred to as Kottai Eswaran temple) at Ukkadam, the Tamil Nadu police began to scour CCTV cameras placed across the stretch. It was soon discovered that Mubin, the deceased, lived fewer than 1 km from the temple. 

CCTV footage captured Mubin and a few others carrying heavy objects wrapped in a white cloth from his house to the parked car on the street on October 22, at around 11.30 pm. Among those spotted in the footage, apart from Mubin, are three men who were subsequently arrested. The objects they carried apparently included two LPG cylinders and three cans. The cans have been recovered and sent for forensic analysis.

As per multiple media reports, the car was seen outside Mubin’s house at 11.30 pm on October 22. The next morning, at around 4 am, it was spotted outside the temple. 

Police raided Mubin’s house and recovered 75 kg of low-intensity explosive material. Over a hundred different materials, including explosive substances such as potassium nitrate, black powder and matchboxes were seized from the house.

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The house owner Abdul Mazhid told The Federal that Mubin took up the house on tenancy recently, for a monthly rent of ₹2,500, but paid an advance of ₹2,50,000. The house owner apparently did not ask why Mubin was offering such a disproportionately huge deposit.  

Subsequent arrests 

Later, Tamil Nadu police arrested six people associated with Mubin — Muhammad Thalkha, Muhammad Azharudheen (different from Mohammed Azharuddin arrested in Kerala), Muhammad Riyas, Firoz Ismail, Muhammad Nawaz Ismail, and Afsar Khan. Three had been caught in the CCTV footage outside his house on October 22.

On Tuesday, October 25, TN police invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with the car blast. On Thursday, October 27, it transferred the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). By Saturday (October 29), all the documents and evidence had been handed over to the NIA.

What the police suspected

While Mubin and his associates did appear to have links with terror groups, the blast per se was an accident, believed police.  Based on a preliminary forensic report, the police said that Mubin may have made bombs watching YouTube videos.

The police were more or less certain it was not a case of suicide bombing. “The Sunday blast reflected amateurishness. It happened early in the morning, when no one was around, while suicide bombers typically try to cause maximum damage. If not killing people, a suicide bomber would’ve at least tried to damage properties. They could have attacked the temple too,” said an investigating officer.  

It was suspected that while the group may have planned to set off a few bombs in Coimbatore, they were not suicide bombers, and Mubin’s death was accidental.

“He was not keeping well. In fact, he had suicidal thoughts. But, he probably never planned to kill himself in a blast,” a police officer, who is part of the investigation, told The Federal.

Mubin was a mechanical engineer by qualification, but having health issues with vision and heart, he never pursued a career in that line. He ran a bookshop and later sold old clothes. He was married to a woman who was speech and hearing impaired. They have two girl children.

NIA begins probe

The NIA, on Sunday (October 30) began its formal probe into the blast. Led by SP Sreejith, a team of NIA officials went to the spot of the blast and questioned the temple priest, Sundaresan. 

Temporary office space on the premises of the Armed Reserve at the Avinashi Road Police Recruits School has been allotted to the NIA. The team comprises seven officials, led by an inspector. More than 10 policemen are assisting the NIA team in the investigation.

The NIA team conducted a search of the surroundings of the Sangameshwar temple and questioned the priest who said he woke up on hearing a loud noise at 4 am and saw a car burning when he came out of his house, located close to the temple.

The NIA also conducted a search of vehicles parked near the temple and questioned some shopkeepers nearby. Further, they plan to search the houses of the six arrested and interrogate them further.

Link with 1998 Coimbatore blasts

According to Tamil Nadu police investigators, Muhammad Thalkha (one of the arrested since the blast) is the son of Syed Ahmed Basha, the founder of Al-Ummah, the terror organisation behind the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts, reportedly targeted the then-BJP president LK Advani.

Al-Ummah was formed in 1993 by Basha, a timber trader, and MH Jawahirullah. It was suspected of being involved in the 1993 bomb blast near an RSS office in Chennai. However, Jawahirullah parted ways with Al-Ummah and formed the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), an NGO working to uplift poor Muslims.

Al-Ummah’s militant arm had executed the 12 blasts in Coimbatore in February 1998, killing 58 people. 

Al-Ummah’s name again cropped up during the Malleshwaram bomb blasts in Karnataka in 2013, although the outfit was banned and its premises raided. Basha was convicted of life imprisonment and is serving his sentence.

Link with 2019 Lankan Easter bombings

Firoz Ismail, another of Mubin’s associates, told the investigators that he and Mubin had met Mohammed Azharuddin and Rashid Ali, who are lodged in a Kerala jail for links with ISIS members allegedly involved in the 2019 Easter bombings in Sri Lanka.

Also read | Coimbatore: Link between car cylinder explosion, 1998 serial blasts, Lanka Easter bombings

Three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in Colombo were targeted by suicide bombers on April 21, 2019, killing 269 people, including 44 foreigners.

Azharuddin then headed an IS terror module that had connections with Maulvi Zahran bin Hashim, the mastermind of the Easter bombings. Hashim and Mohammad Azaan, one of the suicide bombers, visited India in 2017 and 2018.

Mubin handled the Facebook page ‘KhilafahGFX’, operated by Azharuddin, which propagated the IS ideology and helped identify those who wanted to be recruited by the terror organisation.

On NIA’s radar for long

Mubin was no stranger to the NIA. In 2019, the Agency had “examined” him as part of the probe into the Easter bombings. “He was one among the five people we had to examine in 2019 since he had been attending classes at a Coimbatore mosque of the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ). These classes were closely related to Mohammed Azarudeen, who had direct contact with Zahran Hashim, the mastermind and the leader of the suicide bombers in Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka,” a source was quoted as saying in the Indian Express.

The bombings in Colombo were carried out by National Thowheed Jamath, a radical Islamic organisation in Sri Lanka founded by Zahran Hashim. Back then, nothing significant was found on Mubin and he was let off, though he was put on a watch-list.

Questions have been raised on why Mubin has not been monitored despite the alert. Sources in the intelligence wing of Coimbatore police told The Federal it may have been because the beat police had been shifted out between 2019 and now. A large number of cops from Coimbatore were shifted out around election time, the police sources said.

Political slugfest

The whole incident has turned into a political slugfest. The BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit president, K Annamalai, a former Karnataka police officer, attacked the MK Stalin-led DMK government, saying it was the failure of the intelligence department and the state government.

The Tamil Nadu police, however, responded by saying Annamalai was trying to start a false propaganda that the department ignored an alert from the Union Home Ministry. “There was no mention in the circular about the Coimbatore incident,” a statement by the police department said.

Also Read: BJP trying to politicise Coimbatore car explosion: Senthil Balaji

“We appeal to not make such comments based on exaggerated reports and rumours…,” the release said.

Annamalai has also accused top officials of Tamil Nadu police of behaving “like an extension of the Arivalayam (headquarters of DMK) office”.

His party, however, tied itself in knots after some leaders called for a bandh in Coimbatore on Monday, October 31, to protest the alleged inaction of the Tamil Nadu government, only to suspend the plan later. BJP’s TN leaders Vanathi Srinivasan and CP Radhakrishnan had announced a bandh but Annamalai later said the party did not make any such official announcement.

Apparently, Annamalai had been coaxed out of the bandh plans by traders in the city who said their businesses would be affected in an already dire economic atmosphere. Annamalai had also explained the situation to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi asked to know why the NIA was not roped in earlier. “The question is when the Tamil Nadu police got the suspects within hours, why did it take more than four days to bring in the NIA,” he asked on Friday. “Why did the decision-makers take over four days to call the National Investigation Agency after the police arrested the suspects in the blast?” 

Now that the NIA has begun its probe, the political squabbling in Tamil Nadu may taper down a little. However, security forces at the state and Central levels have the task cut out for them.