The outlawed United National Liberation Front-Independent (ULFA-I) carried out a series of blasts in eastern Assam on Sunday amid heightened security for the 71st Republic Day.
The police said there was no casualty and the low-intensity blasts caused minimal damage in Dibrugarh and Charaideo districts. The ULFA-I claimed responsibility for four of these blasts, which occurred within a span of 15 minutes, besides another in Tinsukia district. The police, however, confirmed only four blasts.
“We carried out the serial blasts to protest the forced celebration of a day associated with colonial India,” the outfit’s publicity wing said in a statement. Two blasts took place in Dibrugarh town. Another happened at Duliajan in Dibrugarh district, while t he fourth was in Charaideo district’s Sonari.
“We condemn such cowardly acts. An investigation has been ordered,” Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said.
The ULFA-I has set of explosions and lobbed grenades during Republic Day and Independence Day celebrations in the past. The deadliest of these was on August 15, 2004, when 18 people — mostly school children — were killed in northeastern Assam's Dhemaji.
