Coimbatore serial blasts mastermind Basha buried amidst tight police security

COIMBATORE: The body of S A Basha, the mastermind of the 1998 serial bomb blasts that rocked Coimbatore, was taken in a procession amidst heavy police security and buried on Tuesday evening.

The funeral procession commenced from his Rose Garden residence in South Ukkadam and the body was taken to the Hyder Ali Tippu Sultan Sunnath Jamaath Masjid at Flower Market for the final rites, police said.

A large number of persons including some political party activists and Basha's family participated in the funeral procession which saw atleast 1,500 police personnel including those from the Rapid Action Force, deployed to ensure no untoward incidents occurred.

Basha, 84, had died due to age-related ailments at a private hospital here on December 16 evening.

"He was on parole and not keeping well of late. He was admitted to a private hospital as his health deteriorated and died on Monday evening after being in prison for 35 years," said Indian National League party leader J Rahim.

Basha and 16 others from Al-Umma had been serving life imprisonment in connection with the 1998 blasts. He was granted parole by the Madras High Court recently.

Basha is the founder-president of the banned outfit Al-Umma and planned the serial bomb blasts that claimed 58 lives on February 14. As many as 231 people were injured in the blasts, police said.

In May 1999, the special investigation team of the Crime Branch CID filed a chargesheet against Basha accusing him of conspiring to kill BJP leader L K Advani using a suicide squad.

Taking strong exception to the "depiction of Basha as a martyr" BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai said the police should have allowed only his family members to take out the procession rather than permitting a large number. "This act will disturb peace and create communal tension in Coimbatore," Annamalai told reporters in Chennai.

He announced that the Coimbatore unit of the BJP would observe a black day on December 20 protesting against the portrayal of Basha as a martyr.

BJP Tamil Nadu vice president Narayanan Thirupathy had earlier in the day urged the police not to allow the funeral procession, as this would set a bad precedent in society if a criminal, terrorist, murderer is hailed as a martyr.

"No doubt anyone though a cold blooded murderer should be allowed to have his/her last rites but it should be done peacefully and not with a huge honours for which they don’t deserve," Thirupathy said in a post on social media platform 'X'.

The fundamentalist thoughts and violence, and communal problems started from the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blasts and Basha was the top most person responsible for that, he claimed.

Even today, there were hundreds of persons in various political parties and movements who had been members of the banned Al-Umma.

"This procession may trigger the forgotten memories of 1998 and it may lead to greater communal issues in the future. It is the responsibility of Chief Minister @mkstalin to see to it that this procession does not take place and the last rites of the dead terrorist Basha should be allowed to perform only with their family members and not with any big crowd," he said.