India: Bombs kill 5, wound 26
2009-01-01 20:33
Matthias Williams
Guwahati - At least five people were
killed and 26 wounded when suspected separatist militants set
off three bombs in the main city of India's troubled
northeastern Assam state on Thursday, police said.
The first bomb was found in a dustbin in a heavily populated
residential area of Guwahati, but went off at around 13:45
(0815 GMT) before a disposal squad could defuse it, police said.
Two other improvised explosive devices planted on bicycles
exploded in the late afternoon, one of them near a crowded
shopping mall, the other at a street market, police said.
"I saw two men come and park the bicycle here, and then they
rushed away from the place," said a young woman who gave her
name only as "Begum", who had been at the market.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Police pointed a finger at the United Liberation Front of
Asom (Ulfa), the major separatist group in the oil- and tea-rich
state often blamed for attacks.
'There were security lapses'
They said they had identified
the suspects after receiving specific intelligence information.
"Ulfa is behind this blast. We have inputs and we will very
soon apprehend them (the suspects)," GM Srivastava, Assam's
police chief, told reporters at one of the attack sites.
The blasts hit Guwahati before India's Home Minister
Palaniappan Chidambaram arrived in the state for a security
review on Thursday.
"There were security lapses. Our police force needs to be
modernised and trained to deal with such terror attacks," Tarun
Gogoi, the state's chief minister, told Reuters.
"The intelligence needs to be strengthened."
Friends and relatives of the victims thronged to the city's
hospitals. Local TV showed crowds of people in the streets as
ambulances rushed away the wounded.
The Ulfa is among more than two dozen armed groups in
India's northeast which are either fighting for an independent
homeland or more political autonomy.
They accuse New Delhi of plundering the region's mineral and
forest resources, neglecting the local economy and giving them
back nothing in return.
In October, more than 80 people were killed when 11 bombs
ripped through Assam. Ulfa denied involvement and an Islamist
group claimed responsibility.
But the coordinated attacks were blamed on Islamist
militants from neighbouring Bangladesh in league with
separatists.
- Reuters