Police in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore on Sunday raided the house of the brother of Al Ummah chief, Basha as part of the investigation related to the early morning car blast that killed a 25-year-old engineering graduate.

Police had said that a gas cylinder had exploded in the car, leading to the death of Jameesha Mubin. However, on verifying the antecedents of Mubin, police found that he was questioned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019. Police conducted raids at his house and found that raw materials for making explosives, including potassium nitrate, were stocked in his residence.

Further investigation has led to the police conducting raids at the residence of Nawab Khan, the brother of Al Ummah founder Basha, who was the main architect of the 1996 bomb blasts at Coimbatore in which 56 people were killed and more than 200 injured.

Sources in the Coimbatore police told IANS that the team is questioning the son of Nawab Khan, Thalka. Police sources also told IANS that more than six people are in the custody of the local police and sleuths from the central agencies are also investigating the car blast and the subsequent death of Mubin.

Krishnamoorthy, a wayside vendor at Ukkadam street near Easwaran Kovil where the car blast took place Sunday morning, told IANS that “God saved us. It seems to be a terror act aimed at street vendors and around 130 shops on the street. If it had happened on the Deepavali eve, it would have been a major tragedy.”

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)