The Hindu : Insecurity haunts Coimbatore again

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 29, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Insecurity haunts Coimbatore again

By K. V. Prasad

COIMBATORE March 28 . The murder of two persons belonging to different communities in the space of 36 hours has put Coimbatore once again through a phase of unease though ``personal'' reasons are attributed to one of the incidents.

The murder of Sultan Meeran, a medical shop owner, on Tuesday night followed by the killing this morning of R. Murugesan, an RSS activist, has brought about a sense of insecurity among the peace- loving people here in whom memories of the 1997-98 communal violence are still fresh.

In the backdrop of those incidents, which claimed about 80 lives, any murder in which the victim and the accused are from different communities trigger a fear of fresh violence.

Moreover, communal violence here invariably started with a stabbing spree.

The feeling is that the past forces even personal enmity being construed as communal. And it will persist until the investigating agencies establish the cause as personal and the communities, which come under focus after the incident are also convinced.

Even though communal killings took place earlier, it was the murder of the Jihad Committee leader, Palani Baba, on January 28, 1997 in Pollachi and the riots triggered by it that really turned the entire district communally sensitive.

The murder of three Hindu activists in September 1997 led to a Vinayaka procession being taken out with unprecedented security a few days later.

However, the murder of a traffic constable, Selvaraj, on November 29, 1997 and the riots over the next two days were described as flashpoint.

As many as 18 explosions which took a toll of 58 lives, apart from crippling about 100 persons, ripped Coimbatore apart on February 14, 1998, the day L.K. Advani, who was then BJP president, was scheduled to address an election meeting here.

The mistrust has been persisting between the two communities fuelled by a hate campaign launched by a few groups on either side.

Since then odd ``personal'' incidents sent shivers through the city but never became a conflagration during the four years, thanks to the belief of with the common man in both communities that peace cannot be bought with hatred.

Now, on Wednesday and Thursday, tension prevailed at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital with relatives of Sultan Meeran and Murugesan demanding action against the accused.

This was reminiscent of an episode which occurred at the same venue on December 3, 1997 when a community put some conditions for removing the bodies of 18 of its members who were victims of the November-December 1997 riots.

With the murder of the RSS activist being seen as a retaliation for the killing of Sultan Meeran, both the crimes seem to be acquiring a communal angle when Coimbatore fervently wishes against it.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Coimbatore District Muslim Organisations has appealed to the people to maintain calm and not to believe rumours.

Stating that tension gripped the city after the murder of Sultan Meeran and that the situation threatened to inflict a similar damage, caused to Coimbatore's economy by the 1997-98 riots and blasts, the federation has said in a statement that those indulging in such acts should be punished, whichever community they belong to.

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