SA Basha, the mastermind behind the 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blasts, passed away on December 16, 2024, at 6:20 PM due to age-related ailments. Basha, who founded the extremist organization Al-Ummah, was responsible for planning the devastating blasts that killed 58 people and injured 231 others.
The Coimbatore serial bomb blasts of 1998 (DMK was in power in then) were a grievous incident in which 58 people were killed and over 200 individuals sustained serious injuries. This devastating series of 12 bomb attacks unfolded across 11 different locations within a 12-kilometer radius. Many of the survivors continue to grapple with the long-lasting effects of the shrapnel and other injuries caused by the devastating explosions.
The chief orchestrator behind these tragic events was identified as S. A. Basha, the founder of Al Ummah, an Islamic fundamentalist group. Investigations revealed that these bombings were part of a larger conspiracy with the sinister aim of targeting L.K. Advani, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, during his election meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. on that ill-fated day. Fortunately, Advani’s flight was delayed, and he narrowly escaped the horrors of that day.
It is noteworthy to mention that one of the suspects, Mohammed Dhalka, who was detained in connection to the 2022 Coimbatore car blast terror incident is the nephew of SA Basha. Nawab Khan, Basha’s brother, was also sentenced to one-life term and 27 years of rigorous imprisonment in the 1998 bomb blast case.
The president of the banned fundamentalist outfit Al-Umma, SA Basha, openly threatened to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi if he visited Coimbatore in July 2003. This threat was made by Basha and eight others while speaking to journalists in the Coimbatore court premises after their conviction and life imprisonment in a case related to the murder of a Hindu Munnani leader. It is noteworthy that Al-Umma and its leader were allowed to operate openly by the DMK Government until the Coimbatore blasts on 14 February 1998.
Magazines like Outlook and Frontline also acknowledged the role of the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TNMMK) in these blasts. In March 1998, Frontline reported, “Within hours of the blasts, the Tamil Nadu Government banned Al-Umma and the Jihad Committee. Al-Umma founder-president S.A. Basha and 12 other members of the organization were arrested in Chennai; explosive materials and weapons were seized from his house in Triplicane, Chennai.”
Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.