By IANS,
Guwahati : A day after three powerful blasts ripped through this Assam city killing six people and wounding 50 others, police Friday said the three bombers belonged to the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and released a photograph of one of them.
“We are releasing a photograph of one of the bombers whose name is Pranjal Deka,” Jayashree Khersa, city police spokesperson, told journalists here. A massive hunt is on to apprehend the three ULFA bombers.
Three explosions rocked Guwahati city Thursday late afternoon, two in crowded market places and another inside a roadside garbage bin.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who is here on a scheduled visit, told reporters, “In fact, Assam Police nearly caught one of the bombers, but he managed to escape. I am told the police know the details of at least two of them and would soon be able to catch them.” Chidambaram arrived in Guwahati a few hours after the serial explosions Thursday.
On Friday, Chidambaram held a meeting of the Unified Command and reviewed the anti-insurgency operations in the state. Broad guidelines were given to the Unified Command to move sharply with a focused operational strategy, Chidambaram said.
“We are going to be very firm and decisive against militants in Assam. No quarter will be given to militancy,” he added.
The home minister said Bangladesh continues to be a “safe sanctuary” for militant leaders of the ULFA and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
“The prime minister-elect of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina made a positive statement saying her government would not allow Bangladesh to be used by Indian terrorists and that she will join India in the fight against terror,” Chidambaram said.
“We hope we will make a good beginning together in the fight against terror and be able to neutralize the militant leaders based in Bangladesh,” he said, adding that there were specific intelligence inputs that terrorists were planning to strike in Assam on Dec 31.
“We passed the information to the state government and the Assam Police acted swiftly. But they were not lucky this time to capture them,” the home minister said.