Acts of Terror
The London blasts made me reminisce the events that unfolded on Feb. 14 1998 in Coimbatore city. Valentines day was not exactly romantic in Coimbatore that year. Coimbatore was featured in BBC for all the wrong reasons.
I was at home that time. i casually stepped out to my friend’s house in RS Puram. It was about 3 in the afternoon. I had travelled about a kilometer and i could sense something was amiss. Phew. No Bus transport!. Sathy road looked deserted and i chose to ask one passerby if anything was wrong.
“Seriyaa pochu ponga. Advani kalandhukka irundha meetingla bomb vachutangalam. Nalla velai avar varalai. thappichuttaar.Innum neraya idhathile bomb vedichurukku. Hospital, Gandhipuram Bus Stand ella idamum bomb.Endha bus um odalai”
That was a shocker. I returned home. Exchanged information with my friends over phone and slowly the magnitude of terror had begun to sink in. At least a few hundreds have been killed. Scores injured. The bombs had been planted even in GH. Obviously they had targetted Advani.
And I could not imagine what catastrophe it would have been if Advani had been in the scene.
One bomb had gone off in Sir Shanmugham Road. Hardly a few hundred yards from my friends place.
The main one, in TV Swamy Road - DB Road Junction had killed about 10.About 13 bombs exploded in various parts of the city. My friend and his father who were about to go near that dreaded meeting venue for some other purpose delayed for about 10 minutes and that probably saved their lives.
The next day, we had a torture of a different kind. A car with full of explosives was found parked in Lokhmanya Street in RS Puram near one huge Apartment complex. The mechanism was such that it would explode if someone tried to open the door. That was one marvellous piece of thinking albeit a bit cold blooded. The entire area was cordoned off. It was said if that bomb had gone off, nothing would remain for a radius of 0.5 kilometers. RS puram was and is still one of the most posh localities of Coimbatore. Each and every family in the vicinity was told to vacate their place and go to Mettupalayam Road or further whenever the bomb expertise chose to inspect the car.
If my memory serves me right, it took about 4 days for some bomb experts to come from NDA, Pune or some other place to understand the logic and diffuse the bombs in the car.
What a relief it was!
I have since then used that Lokhmanya street so many times but invariably thoughts of that car bomb strike me whenever i see that apartment. It sure was destined to stay there.
I am sure dubukku or whoever who goes to Liverpool station or any of the affected station hereafter will have a shiver in their spine.
July 8th, 2005 at 2:24 pm
Like yesterday, I was sitting all day before the TV on 1998 and watched the events unfold.
July 8th, 2005 at 4:51 pm
chakra,
the worst part was children and elders were made to vacate thier houses and stand in mettupalayam road at nights whenever the police and the bomb squads went near the car and tried something to break in.
July 8th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
1) Excelent article PK. Had westerens helped us by sharing our concerns then and acted against these people, these kind of terror acts could have been brought well under control.
2) Even there is a huge difference in compensation given to passengers who die in bus accident than to passengers who die in a flight accident. Somehow we always feel, an american or a britan life is precious than indian.
July 8th, 2005 at 8:34 pm
Looks like these blasts are happening pretty frequently these days and its always multiple blasts and not just one!
The casualty numbers is always high in India than in England/US.
Remember only 20-30 people travel in one bus in England but had it been India, it would be easily 80-100 and thats why I feel that importance of lives seem to be less for us.
July 8th, 2005 at 9:02 pm
Muthukumar,
Welcome:)
i started to write a reply to your comment but it evolved into a post:)
July 8th, 2005 at 9:24 pm
I was not aware of that Car incident, Prabu.
But, life continues like this. After the WTO crash, people were so hesitant to take flights.. particuarly, when we used to go on business trips. It took sometime for us to get out of those negative thoughts.
But as you had mentioned for people like ‘dubukku’ who were on the spot, this would be an unforgettable past.
July 8th, 2005 at 9:47 pm
Ram
You did not know abt Car bomb?Interesting.
Adhu seri adhenna US a UK va?coimbatore dhaane…
and mindset la irundhu veli varadhu takes time.
July 12th, 2005 at 8:17 pm
And to know that no one remembers such incidents that happen in India as 9/11 or the London Blast!
Very sad…. extremely sad! aah!!! wanna tear my hair out!