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Two killed in serial blasts in Assam

By IANS

Guwahati : At least two people were killed and more than 19 wounded in a string of explosions in Assam Sunday, including two in the state’s main city of Guwahati, officials said.

A police spokesman said there were four explosions within a span of about two hours – the first was a car bomb explosion in the heart of Tinsukia town, about 550 km east of here.

“The time device was brought in a Maruti car and before the explosion the driver jumped off and fled on a motorbike of an accomplice who was following him,” Tinsukia police chief Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan told IANS by telephone.

Twelve people, most of them evening shoppers and vendors, were injured.

“One of the injured succumbed to his injuries and three more are critical,” the police official said.

There were two explosions in the heart of Guwahati, killing one person and wounding at least eight.

“The two blasts took place near a crowded marketplace adjacent to a Muslim graveyard in which one person was killed and some eight injured,” a senior police official said requesting not to be named.

The injured were shifted to the Gauhati Medical College hospital.

In another incident, militants lobbed a grenade at the office of a police official in Bilasipara town, about 270 km west of here.

“There were no casualties although the office was partially damaged in the grenade attack,” a police official said.

Police blamed all the four blasts on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), fighting for an independent homeland since 1979.

The ULFA observes Nov 27 as Black Day as on this day in 1990 New Delhi launched the first military offensive codenamed ‘Operation Bajrang’ against the outfit after it was declared unlawful.