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Al-Umma's plot to set off blasts in Madras on Thursday foiled, six arrested

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

In a major haul, the Madras police seized 50 kg of explosive material, detonators, timer devices and gelatine sticks from a house at Kodambakkam in the capital of Tamil Nadu, today.

A statement issued by the state police headquarters said the seizures included some box bombs, time devices, two boxes full of detonators and two country-made pistols with 12 rounds of ammunition. The bombs, according to the police, were concealed in three two-wheeler side-cars, with the fuse and detonators in place. Indications are that the bombs had been readied for explosion in busy localities and crowded office areas in the city.

Six people, including a woman, owing allegiance to the banned organisation, Al-Umma, were arrested in this connection, the police said.

On interrogation, the activists revealed that the bombs were meant to be set off in various parts of the city on March 19, when the Bharatiya Janata Party government led by A B Vajpayee would be sworn in, the police claimed.

Posing as leather businessmen, these activists had rented out a third-floor apartment near the state Election Commission office on February 8, the police added.

The arrested persons only seem to be paid couriers, and the brain behind the operation, one Imam Ali, is still at large. A senior leader of the banned Jihad Committee, Ali has been in hiding ever since the Coimbatore blasts.

The seizures were made during intense search operations that have been going on in the wake of the serial bomb blasts in Coimbatore on February 14.

This is the second major explosives haul in the city in less than a year, and the first major one in the state capital since the Coimbatore blasts. The Kodungaiyur seizure of last year too was based on a tip-off, and there too city-centres were the intended targets, and the deadline was only hours away from the recovery. Intelligence sources now fear that major explosives of the variety may have been smuggled into Madras in the last so many days, particularly after the Coimbatore blasts, when the army and the police there launched an unending weapons drive.

The police has pressed the alert button, the director general of police, P C Sharma, has advised the people to inform the police control room on finding suspicious looking persons and objects. For its party, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam feels additionally concerned, as any serious blast on the day of Vajpayee's swearing-in could be interpreted by its political adversaries as further proof of the breakdown in law and order -- thus justifying the demand for its dismissal.

Additional reportage: UNI

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