Al Umma was busy providing legal aid to arrested members

Al Umma, the fundamentalist organisation, whose members Mohammad Khan and Shahul Hamed were arrested in connection with the seizure of explosives, was formed in Coimbatore with the avowed objective to protect the minority Muslims in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition on December 6, 1992.

The two arrested were life convicts for the killing of RSS activists Veer Ganesh and Sivakumar in 1988, now on parole.

Al Umma founder S A Basha, himself an accused in the case, had been acquitted, intelligence sources said. Its members were accused of the murder of Hindu Munnani state president Rajagopalan.

They were also wanted in connection with the bombing of RSS headquarters on August 8, 1993, and the explosion at the Hindu Munnani headquarters.

The Islamic Youth Organisation formed by Basha was transformed into Al Umma which now has a strength of 2,000 members. Coimbatore is the hub the organisation's activity, police sources said.

The arrested had targeted senior political leaders for assassination, interrogations revealed.

Basha, himself, was earlier detained under the NSA and subsequently arrested in the RSS bombing case but is now on bail. A major activity of Al Umma was to arrange for legal aid to the arrested community members.

UNI