The infiltration of Inter-Services Intelligence agents into Tamil Nadu has been through the Al-Umma, a banned Muslim fundamentalist outfit.

The Al-Umma was founded by timber merchant S A Basha in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. Its aim was to co-ordinate between various militant Muslim groups in southern India.

The special investigation report and the Coimbatore inquiry commission report blamed the serial blasts on Al-Umma, which has its base in Kottaimedu, a predominantly Muslim area of Coimbatore.

Basha, with help from other active ISI agents like Azam Ghauri, Saleem Junaid, Farooq Ahmed and Mohammad Mansoor, planned the blasts to avenge the death of 18 Muslims in the communal riots and police firing in Coimbatore in November-December 1997.

The other organisations allegedly involved in the conspiracy were the Indian Muslim Mohammadi Mujahideen, the Tanzim Islahul Muslimeen and the Tamil Nadu-based Jihad Committee.

Hours after the blasts, the Tamil Nadu government banned the Al-Umma and Jihad Committee, and arrested more than a hundred members of these organisations, including Basha, from Keezhakkarai, Devakottai, Dindigul, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Nagercoil, Melapalayam and Udumalpet.

On February 15, the day after the blasts, the Tamil Nadu police raided an Al-Umma hideout on Tirumal Street in Coimbatore, shot dead six activists and arrested its key members.

Their interrogation revealed that the Al-Umma had close links with the ISI and some other terrorist groups in West Asia.

Basha, now in jail, has several criminal cases against him. In 1993, Basha and 16 others were arrested for sparking off a communal riot in Coimbatore. Eleven people, including two women, died when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh office at Madras was allegedly blasted by Basha and his associates in 1993.

The police in 1993 unearthed a clandestine arms factory run by the Al-Umma at Kottaimedu. The raid led to the seizure of a large cache of arms, ammunitions, explosives and other dangerous weapons.

Police officials say the ISI-trained Basha, his recruits and other Muslim fundamentalists use sophisticated electronic devices and explosives like PETN and RDX. The ISI also trains Muslim youths in the Coimbatore region to make improvised explosive devices, they add.