Two more individuals namely Mohammed Yusuf and Syed Mohammed Buhari were arrested in connection with the petrol bomb attack on the Alangar Theatre in Tirunelveli’s Melapalayam area that was screening ‘Amaran’.
On the morning of 16 November 2024, ‘unidentified individuals’ threw petrol bombs at the ‘Alangar’ theatre as it was showcasing ‘Amaran’, escalating tensions in the area. Special Forces and the Anti-Terrorism Squad began investigating the attack.
Based on CCTV footage from around the theatre, authorities arrested a total of three suspects and held them in a secure location for questioning. One of the suspects Rahim was found to have participated in the attack. After confirming that the bombing was a protest against the film Amaran, police continued searching for two additional individuals involved in the incident. Subsequently, Mohammed Yusuf and Syed Mohammed Buhari, both connected to the petrol bomb attack, were arrested.
According to a report by News Tamil 24×7, investigations have revealed that both Yusuf and Buhari have ties to banned terror organization Al Ummah. They had apparently met an individual belonging to Al Ummah who has been imprisoned in Bengaluru jail.
#BREAKING | கைதானவர்கள் அல் உம்மா ஆதரவாளர்கள்?#Amaran | #Theatre | #Petrolbomp | #Arrest | #NewsTamil24x7 | #nellai pic.twitter.com/Qz6jSo1k1n
— News Tamil 24×7 (@NewsTamilTV24x7) November 20, 2024
Al Ummah is a banned radical Islamist terror group which was responsible for the 1998 Coimbatore bombings. Al Ummah had connectivity with Directrate General of Forces Intelligence of Bangladesh (DGFI), Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). It is accused of bombing the RSS Chennai Karyalaya killing 11 persons. In 1995, the organization was involved in targeting filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s house with homemade bombs, protesting his film Bombay for depicting a romance between a Hindu man and a Muslim woman.
It is notable that this incident occurs against the backdrop of condemnation from a coalition of leftists, Islamists, and Dravidianists, who have expressed discomfort with the rise of nationalism fueled by the film ‘Amaran’ The movie, which tells the story of Major Mukund Varadharajan’s heroic sacrifice during a counter-terror operation in Shopian, Kashmir, has drawn criticism from these groups. Initially, these groups pushed the narrative that the film was “Islamophobic,” a claim that was baseless and misleading, which led Muslim leaders in the state to protest and demand a ban.
(With inputs from News 18)
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