Al-Umma proves tough nut to crack

The Al-Umma cadre planned to register their protest by setting off explosions or indulging in sabotage on November 30 and December 6 in Kovai and other places to mark the killing of 18 Muslim youth in riots and the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition. Their arrest has saved Coimbatore and other places in the state, police sources said.

The Al-Umma cadre have expressed their strong displeasure and opposition over Tamil Nadu Government not having initiated action for fixing the culpritsof November 30, 1997. They say the acts were to protect the community from the hands of “Hindu fundamentalists who are dead against the minority.”

The ultras, including Ansari, Nawab Khan and Siddiq Ali alias Siddiq Ali Imran, Mohammed Zubair alias Zubair, brother-in-law of Batcha (absconding since 1991), Yusuf alias Shajahan, Syed Mohammed Buhari (wanted by CBI in connection with the RSS headquarters bomb blast case, absconding since ’91), Hidayat Ali Khan of Sathyamangalam, Mohammed Ali Khan alias Kutty, main producer of explosives, were arrested at Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh on October 11 by a special police team of SIT from Kovai.

All of them have been remanded to police custody for 10 days. Another accused, Amir (leader) of the Shaheed Padai (suicide squad), who was arrested on Thursday by the City police is also in the SIT custody. Eight special teams are interrogating the accused to complete the chargesheet in order to file it by year-end.

Nawab Khan and Siddiq Ali, in the course of theirinterrogation, have said they had vowed to trigger blasts, planted their men at pre-determined targets and left Coimbatore at 1.30 p.m. on February 14, exactly two hours before the plot was executed.

Amanullah said the seven- member squad vowed to accomplish its task of assassinating Advani and kill BJP workers at the D B Road meeting dais. A vow for this was taken at the Kabarastan in Kottaimedu.

He has also confessed the suicide squad resolved “to die for the cause of Islam and meet in the next birth.” They were brainwashed by those who hatched the conspiracy at Chennai that “it was worth dying for the cause of Islam by teaching a lesson for those who brought disrepute to Islam rather than living merely as a silent spectator.”

The entire “martyrs’ army” had in fact vowed to settle scores with those who offended the minority and Islam at a preliminary review meeting held on February 13 in Kottaimedu. Md Ansari is said to have executed the meticulously planned conspiracy evolved at Chennai byBatcha.

Special teams have fanned out to various places to arrest other accused like Mujibur Rehman (propaganda secretary of Al-Umma), S.K. Mohidessn, Zakir Hussain and Hakim, who are said to be in the possession of some explosives.Each person is being interrogated for nearly nine hours with due breaks for lunch and namaz, it is learnt.