1998 Coimbatore bombings

1998 Coimbatore bombings
Location	Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Date	14 February 1998 (1998-02-14) 13:30–15:40 (UTC+05:30)
Target	L.K. Advani[1]
Attack type	Serial bombing
Weapons	13 bombs
Deaths	58[1]
Injured	200+[2]
Perpetrators	Al Umma, S. A. Basha
Motive	To avenge killing of 18 Muslims and to target L.K Advani

The 1998 Coimbatore bombings occurred on Saturday, 14 February 1998, in the city of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 58 people were killed^[1] and over 200 injured in the 12 bomb attacks in 11 places, all within a 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) radius. The explosives used were found to be gelatin sticks activated by timer devices and were concealed in cars, motorcycles, bicycles, sideboxes of two-wheelers, denim and rexine bags, and fruit carts. Several bombs that failed to detonate were defused by bomb disposal squads of the Army, National Security Guards and Tamil Nadu Commando School. The bombings were apparently in retaliation to the 1997 Coimbatore riots during November – December the previous year, when Hindu fundamentalists groups killed 18 Muslims and 2 Hindus ^[4] and looted several thousands of properties of Muslims following the murder of a traffic policeman named Selvaraj, by a member of the radical Islamist group Al Ummah. The main conspirator was found to be S A Basha, the founder of Al Ummah, an Islamic fundamentalist body. Investigators found out that the blasts were a part of larger conspiracy to target L.K.Advani, the leader of Bharatiya Janata Party on that day at 4 p.m in his election meeting.

A judicial committee formed on 7 April 2000 under Justice P.R. Gokulakrishnan to probe the case confirmed that Al Ummah was responsible for the attacks. The committee tabled its final report in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on 18 May 2000, whose recommendations were accepted in principle by the state government. The trial of the case began on 7 March 2002 and as many as 1,300 witnesses were examined. S. A. Basha, the mastermind of the blasts was found guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy to trigger a series of explosions there on 14 February 1998 and was convicted to life sentence along with 12 others. During September 2002, Imam Ali and four others, suspected to be involved in the blasts were killed in a police encounter in Bangalore.

The loss reported by the platform vendors was several crores, but the state government awarded a compensation of ₹4.92 crore (US$590,000) to all the victims. An individual ceiling of ₹1 lakh (US$1,200) was fixed as the maximum for each victim and a total of ₹3.15 crore (US$380,000) was awarded.