By IRNA,
Guwahati, India : A maximum security alert was sounded Tuesday in India’s restive northeastern state of Assam a day after serial explosions and grenade attacks as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in the state for election campaigning, officials said.
Monday’s serial explosions and grenade attacks killed nine people and wounded 60 others.
A police spokesman said that one of the injured blast victims of the Guwahati explosion succumbed to her injuries at a hospital here taking the death toll in four explosions and two grenade attacks to nine.
“Security forces have been put on a state of high alert to prevent any further rebel attacks. Police, army, and paramilitary troopers have been deployed in strength across the state,” Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said.
Security forces have launched a massive hunt to nab the bombers belonging to the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), blamed for Monday’s attacks.
“The ULFA is behind the attacks and I would say such senseless killings of innocent civilians would achieve nothing. We all should stand up against such barbaric terror attacks,” the chief minister said.
“I have asked the security agencies to make sure the bombers are captured.”
A powerful explosion rocked Guwahati’s busy Maligaon area Monday, while another explosion shook Dhekiajuli town in northern Sonitpur district, about 150 km from here. The third explosion took place in eastern Karbi Anglong district injuring two people, while another grenade attack in northern Udalguri district had no casualties.
There was another grenade attack at a police station late Monday in Mancachar in western Dhurbi district in which one policeman was killed and two injured.
Meanwhile, the prime minister arrived in the eastern tea growing town of Dibrugarh Monday afternoon to campaign for the Congress party.