Cylinder blast: Annamalai demands hard action on terror elements

CHENNAI: State BJP leader K Annamalai on Sunday claimed the Coimbatore cylinder was handy work of terror elements link to ISIS. He said that still some of the elements were active in the state and demanded chief minister M K Stalin go hard on them to ensure the safety and security of the people in the state.

"The blast is no more a ‘cylinder blast’. It’s a clear cut terror act with ISIS links, " Annamalai tweeted, tagging CM’s official twitter handled and questioned whether the CM would come out in the open and accept this.

“The TN government is hiding this for 12 hours now. Is this not a clear failure of the state intelligence machinery and DMK government?” he said.

The accused who died during the course of planning this attack had clear cut links to ISIS and he was handled from outside the country. Still some of the elements are active in TN soil, he said and added that the CM should go hard on this terror elements.

He demanded the government and the state police to act swiftly to ensure the safety and security of the people and unravel the mystery behind the blast to allay the fear among the people.

The government should take adequate security measures to ward off the fear among the people ahead of the festival, he said and added that the party welcomed the response from the Director General of Police (law and order) and senior police officers acting swiftly and reached the spot to conduct an inquiry. “ It is the responsibility of the police force to protect the people from the anti-social elements that are trying to turn the state into a land of riots. We hope the police will act swiftly to unravel the mystery behind the blast, ” said Annamalai.