The Hindu : Front Page : 12 killed as blasts rock Assam for second day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 04, 2004

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12 killed as blasts rock Assam for second day

By Sushanta Talukdar and agencies

GUWAHATI, OCT. 3. Twelve persons were killed and 58 injured in incidents of violence that rocked Assam for the second day today.

The Inspector General of Police (Special Branch), Khagen Sharma, said that suspected militants of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) triggered a powerful blast at a weekly market in Dhekiajuli in Darrang district. Thirty-seven persons were injured, some of them seriously. One of the injured died on the way to hospital.

Three persons were killed and 10 injured in a blast in the busy vegetable market at Gouripur in Dhubri district, police said. Unofficial sources, however, claimed that five persons were killed.

In another blast at a fish market at Bijni in Chirang district, one person died and eight were injured.

NDFB militants triggered a blast at Gossaigaon in Kokrajhar district, in which one person was killed and two were injured. Two NDFB men were killed at Rangapara in Sonitpur district when a bomb they were carrying went off. Militants shot at a minor girl in the Baska district of Lower Assam.

Army vehicle targeted

In attacks suspected to have been carried out by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), four army men were killed and their vehicle was damaged in a powerful blast in Upper Assam's Tinsukia district. Two other blasts damaged an oil pipeline at Sonari in Sibsagar district. The extent of damage to the Oil India Limited's natural gas pipeline was unknown.

Another bomb exploded at a shop in Dabosal in western Assam, wounding its owner, the District Magistrate, A.K. Bhutani, said.

And in the nearby town of Chitra, suspected militants blew up an electrical transmission tower, snapping power supply to the area, he added.

A militant was killed when the bomb he was carrying exploded at Puthimari under Kolaigaon police station in Udalguri district.

ULFA militants exploded a bomb at Borhat in Sibsagar district, in which a tea garden labourer was killed on the spot and two were seriously injured. The district police also recovered 6 kg RDX from militants and took 10 persons into custody.

The violence spread to more districts today, affecting Dhubri, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Darrang, Morigaon, Chirang, Udalguri, Sonitpur, Sibsagar, Karbi Anglong, Kamrup and Nalbari.

'Joint attacks'

Mr. Sharma said that the NDFB, which is demanding the creation of a "sovereign Boroland," had carried out attacks on soft targets in a desperate bid to draw attention on its 18th raising day. The attacks had been carried out jointly by the NDFB and the ULFA.

The Director General of Police, P.V. Sumant, said the groups were coordinating their operations to strike simultaneously.

"The Assam Police has information that they [the NDFB and the ULFA] do work together as seen in yesterday's serial blasts and firings by militants across the State." "We had discussions with the Union Home Minister as to how to coordinate the security operations against the outfits as they are functioning in unison," Mr. Sumant added.

Alert sounded

Officials said "maximum alert" had been sounded in the areas where the NDFB was active. Additional security forces had been deployed and security along railway tracks intensified following apprehensions that the militants could target trains.

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