Twin blasts rock Assam, 4 killed, 34 injured
Two powerful explosions, including a grenade attack, in two busy markets in Assam's Sonitpur district on Thurday killed four people and left wounded at least 34 others, officials said.
A police spokesperson said both the attacks took place in northern Assam's Sonitpur district. The first blast took place around 3 pm at a daily market at Missamari town, about 220 km north of Assam's main city of Guwahati. "The market was teeming with people when the bomb went off, leading to utter panic and chaos in the area," Sonitpur district police chief Jitmol Doley said. Witnesses said four people died on the spot and about 30 others were wounded. "The condition of at least six of them is stated to be critical, their limbs separated from the body and stomachs ripped apart," Abhir Das, a local businessman in the area, said.
The blast site is close to a police station and an army base camp. "The injured were shifted to hospitals," Doley said. "Probably the bomb was planted on a parked bicycle and fitted to a timer device," another police official said. In the same district, militants on a motorcycle lobbed a grenade at an evening market in Dhekiajuli, about 150 km north of here. The incident took place around 6 pm. "Preliminary reports indicate four people were wounded in the attack," a police official said.
Police blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) for both attacks. "We strongly suspect the hand of the NDFB in the two blasts as the area is a stronghold of the outfit and there were reports of militants serving extortion notices to people in the area during the past few days," an intelligence official said. The NDFB is a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland for the Bodo tribe in Assam. The NDFB is blamed for the Oct 30 serial explosions in 2008 that killed about 100 people and injured more than 400.
