By IANS
New Delhi : Al Umma, a radical Islamic outfit formed in the early 1980s and held responsible for several terror attacks in south India including the 1998 Coimbatore bombings, has for all practical purposes ceased to be active with most of its leaders either in jail or having left the organisation.
The outfit was responsible for the Feb 14, 1998 serial bomb blasts that rocked Tamil Nadu's textile city and killed 58 people, the attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in August 1993 that killed 11 people, and explosions at the Hindu Munnani office.
Though a Coimbatore sessions court Wednesday found Al Umma chief S.A. Basha guilty of criminal conspiracy for the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts, he had in June 1999 declared that he was renouncing acts of terrorism and that "no bombs would go off in Tamil Nadu in future".
Investigators say groups such as Al Umma and the Jihad Committee became "fearsome" and proved effective counters to radical Hindu organisations, including the Hindu Munnani, the Hindu Makkal Katchi and the RSS in the early 1990s.
Ahmed Pasha, one of its frontline leaders who subsequently left the organisation, set it up in 1982 after the Hindu Munnani held a conference in Coimbatore, in which one leader, Tirukovilur Sundaram, stood out and abused Islam.
Pasha and Basha came together to start Al Umma, and another founding leader, M.H. Jawahirulla, also joined them.
It was Jawahirulla who selected the name Al Umma, which connoted "Followers of the Prophet" who dedicated themselves to fight in a 'democratic manner' those who abused Islam.
Jawahirulla too quit the outfit in the mid-90s saying he did not believe in its cult of violence.
The group, which has its base in Kottaimedu, a predominantly Muslim area in Coimbatore, planned the 1998 bombings as an act of reprisal for the death of 18 Muslims in the communal riots and police firing in November-December 1997, say the investigators.
Al Umma claim to have members in every district in Tamil Nadu, with 3,000 members in Coimbatore alone. Some of the members are known for their expertise in making bombs.
"Though Al Umma has been around since 1987, it became active and well organised all over Tamil Nadu only post Dec 6, 1992 – after the demolition of the Babri Masjid," said a senior intelligence official.
Though most of its members are Muslims, Al Umma claims to have sympathisers among Christians and Hindus as well.