A 25-year-old man died on October 22 in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, after an LPG cylinder in a vehicle exploded in the communally sensitive Kottaimedu region. A Jamesha Mubin of Kottaipudur, near GM Nagar in Ukkadam, has been identified as the deceased.

The blast caused the vehicle, a Maruti 800 hatchback to shatter into pieces. Another unexploded LPG cylinder, steel balls, glass pebbles, and aluminium and iron nails were also recovered from the spot by police.

Following the incident, Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party president K Annamalai asserted that it was not an accident, but rather a planned terror attack with ties to the Islamic State. He said that the DMK-led government in Tamil Nadu is withholding information about the incident.

“Coimbatore Cylinder blast is no more a ‘cylinder blast’. It’s a clear-cut terror act with ISIS links. Will @CMOTamilnadu come out in the open & accept this? TN Govt is hiding this info for 12 hours now. Is this not a clear failure of the state intelligence machinery & DMK Govt?” Annamalai tweeted.

“The accused who died during the course of planning this attack had clear-cut links to ISIS & was handled from outside the country. Still, some of the elements are active in TN soil. Go mercilessly after these nodes. @CMOTamilnadu, pls come out of your hiding and own your failure,” he further added in a subsequent tweet. - OpIndia