Petrol bomb culture in districts reveals face of dangerous feuds

Madurai

On Saturday, the houses of two AIADMK functionaries in the same locality at Thoothukudi were attacked. Chinnadurai, AIADMK Secretary of Ward no.3, was woken from his sleep when  he heard a loud blast outside his house in Rajagopal nagar and then saw his bike and  tent burning due to a petrol bomb. SIPCOT fire station personnel rushed to the spot and doused the fire which damaged the bike completely.

In a similar incident in the same locality, the bike of Pichai, another AIADMK functionary, was burnt by a petrol bomb. The SIPCOT police regis tered two cases and arrested two persons in connection with the incident. Similarly, in Kalugumalai, a petrol bomb was thrown at the house of Muthuraj, the town’s  AIADMK Youth Wing Secretary, the second incident in two consecutive days, which damaged his bike, cycle and grinder. He had lodged a complaint at the Kalugumalai Police station. Following the incident AIADMK cadres staged a road roko at Kalugumalai-Kovilpatti main road, demanding the arrest of those involved in the incidents.

Thoothukudi Superintendent of Police, Ashwin Kotnis, said that while the two incidents in Thoothukudi were due to personal vendetta and intra-party feuds, the two that occurred in Kalugumalai were due to political reasons.

Bomb manufacturing sites

A senior police official in Madurai said that there were no fixed manufacturing points as the persons who attacked Sellur Raju’s office manufactured the bombs at an apartment in Madurai. This was not so with crude bombs, which, ironically, need to be assembled carefully. The base of a mountain and quarries are used for making crude bombs to reduce the impact even if they explode. However, in the past, crude bombs were also recovered from the Muslim-dominated areas of Nelpattai and few youth were also arrested, he said.

Some of the recent incidents where petrol bombs were used

Jan 9: Office of Minister for Cooperation, Sellur Raju, was attacked in Madurai
Jan 10: Unexploded bombs were recovered from Madura College ground at Madurai
Mar 14: The bikes of AIADMK functionary, parked in front of his house in Thoothukudi, were torched by petrol bombs
Mar 20: The house of a temple functionary in Thoothukudi was attacked
Apr 24: Two bikes of a DMK councilor at Tirunelveli were damaged in the same manner
May 14: A petrol bomb was hurled at the Councillor’s house at Thoothukudi
May 20: A petrol bomb was hurled at an AIADMK functionary’s house at Kalugumalai
May 21: Petrol bombs were hurled at three places at Thoothukudi district