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Four boys killed in fresh Coimbatore blast

Four teenaged boys were killed on the spot in a fresh bomb blast in Bilal Estate, in the Al-Ameen colony in South Ukkadam in Coimbatore on Tuesday afternoon. With this, the toll in the blasts have gone up to 56.

The police said the boys, who were playing cricket in an open ground, stumbled upon a bomb while retrieving the ball from a bush. The bomb apparently exploded when the boys tampered with it.

The army immediately cordoned off the area. Police and paramilitary personnel have launched an intensive combing operation to unearth arms and ammunition.

The police gave the names of the boys as Abdul Rahim (16), Subbair (16), Juanidu (15) and Samsuddin (15).

In raids conducted in 14 areas throughout Coimbatore, the police have seized 102 pipe bombs and two petrol bombs, and arrested 261 people in the city. Two hundred and sixteen others have also been arrested in other parts of the district.

Elsewhere in the state, 1,039 people, including 146 activists of three fundamentalist organisations, among them the banned Al-Umma and the Jihad committee, were arrested.

Patrolling by contingents of the army, the Rapid Action Force and the Central Reserve Police Force, besides other paramilitary forces, has been intensified in sensitive areas of Coimbatore city as a preventive measure.

Efforts by explosives experts, requisitioned from Pune, to defuse the bombs, placed in an abandoned car in R S Puram, were still on. The police were conducting raids on suspicious spots at the Al-Amin Colony, where the fresh blast occurred.

While the Election Commission has sought a report from the Union home ministry on the situation in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer K A Mathew has ruled out postponement of the February 22 polling in the wake of the blasts.

Asked if additional security forces would be deployed in Coimbatore, Mathew said the army had already moved in and was assisting the police and civil authorities restore order.

In a related development, Actor Rajnikanth said he would give financial assistance to the families of those who died in the serial blasts. He told reporters at his home in Madras that the nature and quantum of the assistance was being worked out and would be announced soon.

The superstar clarified that he was not supporting any particular community and that if his earlier statement on the blasts had given an impression of bias, it was not intended to do so.

UNI in Coimbatore

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Elections '98

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