By IANS
Guwahati : Four railway workers in Assam were injured when separatists lobbed grenades on them late in the night. Police have received information about specific rebel plans to step up violence ahead of Republic Day Jan 26, authorities said Saturday.
“Militants lobbed a grenade on a group of railway workers late Friday night as they were sleeping near their work site at Rongsal (in eastern Dibrugarh district, 500 km from capital Guwahati),” an Assam police spokesman said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, although the police believe rebels of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) were behind it.
“We are convinced the attack was carried out by the ULFA to demonstrate its strength,” L.R. Bishnoi, an Assam police deputy inspector general, said.
“We are aware of the rebels’ plan to intensify violence ahead of Republic Day and have put our police, army and the paramilitary on high alert,” the police spokesman said.
Earlier Friday, the police in the western Baksa district seized five French made timer devices following the arrest of an ULFA militant Thursday.
The militant, identified as Arjun Deka, told police interrogators that a leader of the ULFA’s crack ‘709th battalion’, active in the area, had given him five explosives, with a directive that he arrange to plant three of them in state capital Guwahati to disrupt the Republic Day celebrations.
“We raided a book shop in Barama, in Baksa district, and recovered the hidden bombs. The book shop owner has been arrested,” P.K. Dutta, district superintendent of police, said.
The ULFA, fighting for a ‘sovereign, socialist Assam’ since its formation 1979, has been routinely stepping up violence across Assam ahead of important days in the national calendar like Republic Day and Independence Day.
In 2004, ULFA rebels triggered off a blast during an Independence Day parade in the northeastern Dhemaji district town, killing 14 school children who were part of the parade.
Officials said during the past few days, the security forces in Assam have recovered up to 20 explosives which they presume were to have been used to trigger blasts in the run up to Republic Day.