- विज्ञापन -
Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu): Tamil Nadu Police has apprehended a major suspect involved in the 1998 Coimbatore serial bombings and various communal murders across the state, officials announced on Thursday.
The suspect has been identified as Sadiq, also known by aliases such as Raja, Tailor Raja, Valarntha Raja, Shahjahan Abdul Majid Makandar, and Shahjahan Shaik. Hailing from Coimbatore, he had been on the run for nearly 29 years and had remained unarrested since 1996.
According to a statement, the suspect was arrested based on specific and credible intelligence by a special team from the Anti-Terrorism Squad and Coimbatore City Police in Vijayapura district, Karnataka.
He is allegedly involved in numerous terror-related and communal murder cases, including the deadly 1998 bomb blasts in Coimbatore that killed 58 people and injured 250. He is also accused of the 1996 petrol bomb attack in Coimbatore that resulted in the death of jail warden Boopalan, the 1996 murder of Sayeetha in Nagore, and the 1997 murder of jailor Jayaprakash in Madurai.
In recent weeks, the Anti-Terrorism Squad, in collaboration with Coimbatore Police, has also arrested India’s most wanted suspects, Abubacker Siddique and Mohamed Ali, aka Yunus, from Andhra Pradesh’s Annamayya District.
The arrest of Sadiq from Vijayapura, Karnataka, marks the third successful capture of a long-absconding individual involved in terror offenses.
The 1998 bombings in Coimbatore involved 19 explosive devices with timer mechanisms, placed in vehicles, bags, push carts, and cans, resulting in a devastating attack that claimed 58 lives and injured 250 between February 14 and 17, 1998.
Following the incident, the Tamil Nadu government banned the ‘Ummah’ organization, whose founder Basha was identified as the mastermind behind the blasts.
In its December 2009 verdict, the Madras High Court described February 14, 1998, as a day of “unimaginable terror and horror,” marked by continuous bomb explosions across Coimbatore. Out of 166 accused individuals, the trial court in August 2007 found 69 guilty of various charges.
