By IANS,
Guwahati : “Why did I come to the market?” an inconsolable Rupali Bora sobs. She was unwilling to go to the Ganeshguri vegetable market, but her husband persuaded her. Now he was lying dead – one among the 61 killed in a string of serial blasts to rock Assam Thursday.
Rupali sustained injuries to her limbs, although she is out of danger.
Shiba Sharma cannot get over the horror of seeing his cousin tossed up in the air and landing in a pool of blood, his limbs dismembered.
“We came together in the morning and my cousin wanted to have a smoke. He entered a kiosk and I was waiting on the pavement a little away,” Sharma said.
“Then I saw his body in the air and his limbs were flung all over the place,” Sharma said in a state of shock.
Anil Das and his wife Mamoni were luckier. They decided to visit the market, in the heart of Assam’s main city of Guwahati, around 11 a.m.
“We were shopping at the Ganeshguri vegetable market when suddenly there was a very loud sound and we were engulfed in thick smoke,” said Anil. “There were fireballs going above our heads and we thought that it was the end of the world.”
Fortunately for the couple, they survived the attack with just minor injuries.
The scene at the sites of blasts in Guwahati was chaotic.
“Human limbs were strewn all over the place and blood was splattered everywhere,” said Anupam Mahanta, a witness.
“I saw at least 10 bodies burnt beyond recognition, some of them with just their torsos,” another witness, Biplap Baruah, said.
Twelve bombs went off in less than an hour in Guwahati as well as in the western districts of Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon. More than 300 people were injured, many of whom are in a critical condition.