Five Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and 40 injured, 32 critically, when the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) exploded an improvised explosive device at Bhalukdubi in lower Assam's Goalpara district on Friday.
The blast occurred around 6.30 a.m. when the 45 CRPF personnel were returning in a bus to their base after a training session.
A caller, identifying himself as ULFA's central publicity unit member Anu Buragohain, told local television channels on the phone that the outfit was behind the ambush that occurred close to the district headquarters Goalpara. He warned of more such attacks.
District Superintendent of Police Luis Aind told TheHindu that four personnel died instantaneously, while one died on way to the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.
The police suspect that a mixture of RDX and TNT was used to trigger the blast.
Assam Revenue Minister Bhumidhar Barman, who visited the injured personnel at the hospital, blamed the blast on the anti-talk factions of the ULFA. “It is an act of cowardice. Everyone should strongly condemn such acts. The government's initiative to hold peace talks with the ULFA and the recent meeting between the interlocutor, P.C. Haldar, and the jailed ULFA leaders triggered some hope among the people of Assam for peaceful resolution of the problem.”
Dr. Barman also alleged that while jailed ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and several other leaders favoured talks, self-styled commander-in-chief of the outfit Paresh Barua was against the process.
On Thursday, the Guwahati police arrested six members of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), including assistant information and publicity secretary B. Barbai and a woman, in an intensified operation against the NDFB's faction led by chairman Ranjan Daimary, who is now in the Goalpara jail.
