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February 20, 1998

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More bombs recovered in Coimbatore

The Coimbatore rural police recovered 75 petrol bombs from a bush near Salamat street in suburban Karumbukkadi during combing operations late on Thursday night.

Following the recovery of the bombs, the police continued their combing operations in the area, on Friday morning.

All vehicles bound for Kerala and other places from the outskirts of Coimbatore were thoroughly checked following a tip-off that the extremists behind the serial bomb blasts were trying to smuggle out the bombs hidden in the textile city.

Earlier on Thursday, in the biggest ever haul in the city, the police seized a huge cache of explosives from a petty shop in Thirumal street, close to the building where six extremists were killed in their hideout in an explosion on Sunday last.

Deputy Commissioner of Police J M Arumugam said 200 gelatine sticks, 500 pipe bombs, an equal number of petrol bombs and 1000 electrical detonators, packed in three gunny bags, were recovered from the shop which had remained closed since the serial bomb blasts on Saturday last. The shop owner, Kadher, is absconding, he said.

In Madras, a delegation of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders who visited Coimbatore, scene of the serial bomb blasts, on a fact-finding mission charged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi with covering up the real nature of the blasts and said the nation expected an apology from him in this regard.

Addressing a press conference, K R Malkani, Vijaykumar Malhotra, both members of the Rajya Sabha, and party national vice president Jana Krishnamurthy, said while Karunanidhi sought to maintain that there was no human bomb targeted at BJP president L K Advani, who was to have addressed a campaign meeting at Coimbatore on February 14, Assistant Commissioner of Police Antony Selvaraj had told the BJP state secretary the next day a human bomb, who was to have targeted Advani, blew himself up when chased by the police near the stage.

The BJP leaders alleged that while the chief minister and the friends of the government maintained that the explosions took place 800 metres away from the stage, the explosions had occurred within 150 to 250 feet from the stage.

UNI in Coimbatore

RELATED REPORTS:
Coimbatore blasts part of a bigger conspiracy, says BJP
T V R Shenoy: The DMK, far from being abashed, is taking credit for keeping L K Advani safe!

Elections '98

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