The Hindu : Front Page : 7 killed, 55 injured in two Assam bomb blasts

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7 killed, 55 injured in two Assam bomb blasts

Sushanta Talukdar

Police suspect that it is the handiwork of ULFA

ULFA desperate to show its strength after arrests, say police
Caller tells TV channels that ULFA is not involved in the blasts

PHOTO: PTI

A child injured in a bomb blast being treated at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital on Sunday. —

Guwahati: Seven people were killed and 55, including minor children, injured in two bicycle-bomb blasts in Nalbari, headquarters town of lower Assam’s Nalbari district on Sunday morning.

The first blast occurred just near the Nalbari Police Station in the heart of the town around 10 a.m., injuring several people. As a huge crowd of market-goers gathered to help the injured and to witness the blast after-effects, another powerful blast occurred soon a few feet away from the first blast site.

Five people died on the spot in the second blast and over 50 were injured, several critically. Two people died later in hospitals here.

About 30 seriously injured were admitted to the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) and other hospitals.

Police suspect that the blasts were the handiwork of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).

However, a caller, identifying himself as self-styled commander of the ULFA’s 709 Battalion Hira Sarania, told three local television news channels that the outfit was not involved in the blasts.

The caller alleged that the blasts could be the handiwork of vested interests to sabotage a fresh move by the People’s Committee for Peace Initiative in Assam (PCPIA), a conglomerate of civil society groups for brokering peace dialogue between the ULFA and the government.

A PCPIA delegation is now camping in New Delhi to impress upon the Union government to initiate the stalled peace process with the ULFA.

A senior police officer, who declined to be quoted on the ground that investigations were still on, told The Hindu that whether the ULFA denied it or not, the police suspected the twin blasts to be the handiwork of the militant outfit.

“Two improvised bicycle-bombs were triggered by the ULFA. In the past too, we had recovered similar bicycle-bombs of the ULFA. After triggering the blasts in a public place, the ULFA is in a denial mode, fearing public outcry against it,” he said.

The police also suspect that the ULFA was desperate to show its strength following the arrest of its self-styled foreign secretary Sashadhar Choudhury and finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika in Dhaka, now in custody of the Assam police.

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