1998 Coimbatore bombings

The 1998 Coimbatore bombings occurred on Saturday, 14 February 1998, in the city of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 58 people were killed and over 200 injured in the 12 bomb attacks in 11 places, all within a 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) radius. The explosives used were found to be gelatin sticks activated by timer devices and were concealed in cars, motorcycles, bicycles, sideboxes of two-wheelers, denim and rexin bags, and fruit carts. Several bombs that failed to detonate were defused by bomb disposal squads of the Army, National Security Guards and Tamil Nadu Commando School.

Quotes

• The Coimbatore bombings were the biggest terrorist attack in India since the 1993 Mumbai carnage. The saboteurs chose Valentine’s Day to carry out 12 blasts at 11 different locations of the city. Around 58 families lost their loved ones in this tragedy. The bombs exploded just before Advani had reached a rally which he was going to be addressing. In fact, one of the bombs was detonated barely 800 metres from his podium. Mahdani had a reputation for making venomous speeches before the blasts. He had formed an organisation called the Islamic Sevak Sangh to rally Muslim youth. Such organisations were a lucrative breeding ground for the ISI’s activities.
  • The Great Indian Conspiracy, by Dr. Praveen Tiwari

• The recent Coimbatore bombing that killed a number of BJP workers was likened in the New York Times to the Reichstag fire which Hitler staged to gain power. The implication was that the BJP planned the bombing as an election ploy, even sacrificing its own members, and that they are as ruthless as Hitler. That Islamic terrorist groups were linked, was ignored.
  • David Frawley, The elections in India, p 5. quoted in Elst, K. (2010). The saffron swastika: The notion of "Hindu fascism". p 760

• But we cannot include [here] a discussion of the awkward dishonesty evident throughout secularist reporting.. For now, we merely want to draw attention to what Mira Kamdar omits about L.K. Advani: that he has survived several attempts on his life. The most spectacular instance took place during an election meeting in Coimbatore in February 1998, where an Islamist bomb attack failed to kill Advani because he arrived late. It did, however, kill forty BJP activists present. Not being wealthy secularists, they were never put on alert by helpful "threats".
  • Elst, Koenraad. The Problem with Secularism (2007). The Struggle for India's Soul A reply to Mira KAMDAR, in : The Problem with Secularism (2007)

• Another spectacular occasion of imported explosives in action was the bomb attack against L.K. Advani in Comibatore in February 1998, killing over fifty BJP activists.
  • Elst, K. (2010). The saffron swastika: The notion of "Hindu fascism". p 743

• In this wave of terrorism against the BJP (a new high in a campaign of anti-BJP terror which has been striking now and then since March 1993), Reuters leaves its information consumers to guess who the victim was, and whether the BJP was the perpetrator or the target of the violence. Nothing in the 94-line report explicates that the violence was directed against the BJP, eventhough that was the first and only fact of which we could be certain right away... The policy seems to be, not to concede anything whatsoever to the Hindu movement, not even its martyrs.
  • Elst, K. (2010). The saffron swastika: The notion of "Hindu fascism". p 760