Author: Jayaraj Sivan
Publication: The India Express
Date: October 5, 2002
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=10678
Introduction: Al-Mujahideen chief
Imam Ali's death in a police operation is by no means the last word on
the rise of fundamentalism in Tamil Nadu
The death of Imam Ali in Bangalore
last week closed a chapter in the history of religious fundamentalism in
Tamil Nadu. Ali, main accused in the 1993 bomb blast at the RSS office
in Chennai, was wanted ever since he fled from custody in March this year,
and his death in a police operation in Bangalore on September 29 has opened
a can of worms the Tamil Nadu government needs to take a hard look at.
Already, police officials leading
the crackdown on extremists are finding themselves on the hitlist of various
organisations. Several Superintendents of Police and inspectors have been
provided personal security guards. Shell- shocked, the Special Division
of the Crime Branch-CID has asked its people to pull up their socks. The
Special Division has, for example, been asked to step up its vigil and
networking in obscure towns like VK Puram in Tirunelveli district, from
where Imam Ali is believed to have recruited seven members for the Al-
Mujahideen, the organisation he floated after he escaped from police custody
near Madurai in March earlier this year.
The other new hotspots on the Tamil
Nadu terror map are Melapalayam, Dindigul, Madurai, Sivakasi, Tirupur,
Chennai and Coimbatore, where poverty and illiteracy are believed to have
pushed several youth into the welcoming arms of fundamentalists. In other
areas, lack of job opportunities has been the motivating factor.
It is this void of poverty and want
that extremist leaders like S Basha (the founder of Al-Umma), Palani Baba,
Kundrakudi Hanifa, Kitchan Buhari and Imam Ali step into, this disgruntlement
that they tap to rope in youth for outfits like the Al Umma, Jihad Committee,
Islamic Defence Force and Al-Mujahideen. Rich members of the community
from areas like Kayalpattinam and Keezhakarai are believed to provide the
necessary resources.
Police estimate that around 250
Muslim extremists - involved in the Coimbatore bomb blast of 1998, the
train blasts of 1997, the RSS office blast of 1993, the Melapalayam murders
of 1997 etc - are already behind bars. Most of them are in the age group
of 18 to 22 years and the fathers of most are either in the Gulf or dead.
But there are many more on the run, like Imam Ali's former associate Siddique,
involved in the parcel bomb case in Chennai, and Ashraf Ali, another accused
in the Coimbatore blast.
Police believe the mass conversion
at Meenakshipuram in Tirunelveli district in 1981 may have been the beginning
of Muslim extremism in the state. The Ganesh Chathurthi processions of
the mid-80s served to further raise communal tension, which reached a flashpoint
with the Babri Masjid demolition of 1992. The demolition also helped unite
various splinter groups. Then, there were the 1997 communal riots in Coimbatore
between November 29 and December 1, where 18 Muslims were killed, and where
Muslim businesses and properties bore the brunt of attack.
Though no major political party
actively supports the extremists, the DMK cannot shed its share of the
blame in remaining a mute spectator to rising fundamentalism in Tamil Nadu
in 1998. In fact, before the Coimbatore serial blasts, police had sought
the state government's permission to raid the Kottaimedu area of the city
ahead of election rallies there. But fearing electoral reprisal, the government
had advised police to delay the clampdown till the parliamentary polls
were over. Unfortunately, the terrorists had struck right during L.K. Advani's
rally, and it was sheer luck that the BJP leader escaped.
The one consolation is that the
extremists in Tamil Nadu, till now, do not have direct links with the Mumbai
underworld, and hence do not have access to the deadly RDX. For the same
reason, RDX has not been used in such blasts in Tamil Nadu. The local extremists
still use gelatin sticks and electric detonators.
Still, for the Coimbatore blasts,
they acquired pistols and guns from Kerala through the Madhani link. Unless
police act fast, those links may stretch further.
Equally, the government needs to
send out the message that it isn't targetting Muslims. And, that it also
needs to take steps to contain the inflammatory speeches and actions of
the extreme fringe among organisations like the Hindu Munani, which only
further feed the flames of extremism.
