While the politics around the Coimbatore car blast case peaks, Coimbatore residents are still coming to terms with the incident.
The Coimbatore car blast from a week and a half ago seems to have done little to shake the bonds of communal harmony that the city has formed over the past couple of decades, these two girls from different communities show on Thursday, 3 November, 2022. (South First)
Two young girls — one clad in a dark blue school uniform and the other in a pink uniform with a black headscarf — walked hand-in-hand while returning from school. Immersed in an intense conversation, they walked past the Kottai Eswaran Sangameswarar temple in the Ukkadam area of Coimbatore, where the priests were busy making arrangements for the evening poojas. The smell of fresh flowers and incense sticks filled the air.
At a glance, everything seemed normal. In fact, the sight of two young girls — one Hindu and the other Muslim — walking together was reassuring, considering the fact that a Maruti-800 car had exploded right outside the temple just a week ago. The blast had killed 29-year-old Jameesha Mubin, who, according to the police, was radicalised and plotting a terror attack.
Even as things look normal, an uneasy calm prevails in Coimbatore. While the politics around the car blast case is peaking — with the BJP accusing the DMK government of lapses in acting upon prior intelligence inputs and minority appeasement — the residents of Coimbatore are still coming to terms with the concerning details of the incident.
When South First hit the ground to understand the mood in Coimbatore — a city known as the communal cauldron of Tamil Nadu — the one overarching sentiment among people was that of relief: that the explosion on the eve of Deepavali did not inflict any casualty or even cause any damage to the temple.
Picture from the meeting between representatives from the Muslim community and priests of Kottai Eswaran temple. (South First)
The fact that the incident did not lead to another law-and-order problem was also another reason for the relief, for the people of Coimbatore know all too well the cost of major episodes of communal violence in the city.
Though there have been several isolated incidents of violence and riots since the deadly blasts in February 1998 by Al-Umma, which killed 56 people and injured hundreds, the city has somehow managed to put them in the rearview mirror. However, many in Coimbatore now fear that the recent car explosion might come as a setback for the peace and harmony in the society they painstakingly restored over 10-20 years after the 1998 bombings.
Outside view of the Kottai Eswaran temple in Ukkadam. (South First)
For the Muslims in Coimbatore, and especially in the Ukkadam, Kottaimedu and Karumbukkadai areas, the car blast that took place right outside the temple came as a shock. They wanted to believe that it was just an accidental LPG cylinder blast. However, the details that followed — like the role of Mubin, explosives being stored at his residence, and his radicalisation — made the community feel extremely anxious and brought back memories of the 1998 blasts.
The reasons for it are many. For instance, they believed that there would be attempts to hold the entire community responsible for the actions of one man and his alleged associates. They also feared that their businesses, livelihood, and societal standing — which was hugely impacted after the 1998 blasts — would once again be affected. Further, they worried about how certain religious and political forces might try to disrupt the communal harmony in Coimbatore using the car blast as a pretext. The fact that a member of their own community went astray was also another cause of concern for them.
“Just when things start to get normal and we start standing on our feet once again, something like this (car blast) happens. For the common man, we only think about how to get through the day. All we think about is: How can we take our lives and business forward? But then when individuals like Mubin do something like this, our entire life gets disrupted through no fault of ours,” the owner of a purdah store, which is located barely metres away from the Kottai Eswaran temple, told South First.
“It takes us back by several years. Nobody wishes for something like this to happen,” he added.
The mixed emotions aside, several questions linger in their minds about Mubin and the car blast.
When South First spoke to a few Jamaat members, they identified Mubin as a reclusive man. They said even when he used to attend prayers, he waited for the crowd to leave so he could pray alone. They also pointed out that Mubin was not financially sound. This made them wonder how the 29-year-old engineering graduate, who was struggling to make ends meet, managed to get money to procure huge quantities of explosive materials.
Security was stepped up outside mosques in Coimbatore after the car blast. (South First)
According to police sources, Mubin had stored around 75 kg of explosive materials, such as potassium nitrate, aluminium powder, charcoal, and sulphur, at his residence. Cops told South First that there were three drums of explosives, weighing around 80 kg, inside the car that exploded.
This fuelled curiosity among the Jamaat members. “Where did Mubin get the money from? Was someone helping him? How did he plan an explosion like this? Did someone use Mubin to deliberately stoke communal tensions? How could someone who was on the radar of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other agencies actually pull off something like this without the authorities knowing?” These are all questions to which the Muslim community wants answers.
Further, in the conversations with the members of the community, what was also striking and concerning was the glaring lack of trust among the Muslims with respect to institutions like the NIA and the BJP. The brazen oppression of minorities and the hate unleashed against them by members of the ruling party and other right-wing organisations has pushed them to view incidents such as the car blast through the prism of a larger conspiracy.
But whatever the case may be, the Muslims in Coimbatore in general, and Ukkadam in particular, did not want to leave any room for ambiguity and wanted to send out a strong message against terrorism and the radicalisation of Muslim youths.
At least two Jamaats in Coimbatore did not allow the body of Mubin to be buried in the burial grounds they manage. Abdul Hakkim, one of the Jamaat leaders, told South First that a Muslim attaches great importance to Janaza (funeral prayer), and by denying that to Mubin — someone who was allegedly influenced by extremist ideology and has been accused of plotting a terror attack in his home town — they wanted to send across a loud message to others that the community would not tolerate such actions.
Further, during the Friday prayers after the car explosion, all Jaamats in Coimbatore publicly denounced the incident and once again reiterated in the strongest terms that the Islamic State group’s ideology was un-Islamic.
Apart from coordinating with the police and district administration to ensure that peace and harmony prevailed in Coimbatore, the Muslim representatives are also taking several steps to ensure that the relationship bridges they have managed to build over the years stay intact.
As for members of the Hindu community, the car explosion outside the Kottai Eswaran temple on the eve of Deepavali has certainly disturbed them.
Many of them, who live around the temple in Ukkadam, told South First that there had been no severe communal tension there over the last few years, and this incident came as a bolt from the blue.
Lakshmi (name changed), a middle-aged woman who runs a mobile snack stall around the Kottai Eswaran temple, said that even though she plies her trade in a Muslim-dominated area, she never felt any kind of animosity from anyone.
However, she wondered why someone like Mubin, who used to work in an old bookstore just metres away from her stall, would try to attack the temple.
“It was an auspicious day, one on which hundreds of devotees would have thronged the temple. What if the blast had taken place when the people were inside the temple? It is sad to think that a young man like him was getting such ideas to carry out attacks against another faith,” Lakshmi told South First.
Picture from the spot where Jameesha Mubin’s car exploded outside the temple. (South First)
Asked if she was scared to continue to set up her stall in Ukkadam after the car blast, Lakshmi said: “I studied in a school that taught me to respect all religions. I go to temples, churches, and mosques. Just because one Muslim man has done this, why should I be scared of others from the community?”
That said, there is also a section within the community for which the car explosion was another reason to point the finger of blame at Muslims.
“What happened on 23 October was just a trial. They (Mubin and others) wanted to see how it could be pulled off. They want to carry out more such attacks… When I throw some pieces of fish for the stray dogs and cats outside my house, my neighbours (Muslims) complain of the stench. Why didn’t they complain when that boy (Mubin) was stuffing his house with explosives? They (Muslims) will not say anything when it comes to their own,” an elderly woman who stays very close to the temple told South First.
Interestingly, many of them were also able to surmise that certain political and religious organisations were trying to use the car blast case to foment more trouble.
“Political parties and fringe groups will try to milk the situation. It is obvious. But the people of Coimbatore are well aware of the cost of falling into such traps. If things were normal, Coimbatore would have become like Chennai, Bengaluru or Hyderabad today. Communal tensions have marred and slowed our progress, and we cannot continue going down that path,” a young businessman from Ukkadam told South First.
Similar views were echoed by a priest at the Kottai Eswaran temple. Describing how he was “stunned” to hear about the blast on 23 October, the priest told South First that in the hundred-odd years that his family has been living in Ukkadam and working at the temple, not once have they faced any trouble. He even recalled an instance from a few years ago when his Muslim neighbours came to his aid when there was a fire accident at one of their houses.
He said they did not experience any problems even during the annual temple chariot procession. “The chariot goes through Muslim-dominated areas. Not even once did they make trouble. In fact, they make sure that the chariot gets a smooth passage,” the priest, who has been working at the temple for several decades, pointed out.
“They give all of us a lot of respect. There are elements on both sides who want to create trouble. But the larger society wants peace. I believe in humanity and I don’t think this incident would create a rift among both communities,” he added.
Even for the Muslim community, one of the reasons they are incredibly disappointed with the car blast was that it happened outside the Kottai Eswaran temple. A few Jaamat members pointed out that temples and other places of religious worship were not targeted even during the worst episodes of communal violence in Coimbatore.
Picture of representatives from the Muslim community outside Kottai Eswaran temple. (South First)
On Thursday, 3 November, Ulemas and representatives from the mosques in the area visited the Kottai Eswaran temple to ensure peace was maintained. They were given a warm welcome by the priests of the temple.
The gesture from both sides was a strong message in itself — one that of brotherhood and communal harmony. If anything, the meeting came as a reaffirmation of the desire of the people of Coimbatore to make sure peace prevails.
Moreover, the Kottai Eswaran temple, to the surprise of certain political and religious groups who were using the car blast case to further their divisive agenda, now stands tall as a symbol of communal harmony.
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