A Hindi-speaking cobbler was killed and at least 18 others were injured in an explosion at a market near the railway tracks in Guwahati’s Bamuni Maidan area on Saturday.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rajen Singh said the militants of the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) triggered the blast by detonating an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). The IED was possibly kept in an auto-rickshaw that was parked in the market, he added. The ULFA has of late been targeting Hindi-speaking people across the state. The latest blast raised the number of Hindi-speaking people killed by the militants in Assam over the past 12 months to 103. The rebels had killed altogether 30 Hindi-speaking people in the hill-district.