Violence spectre on Assam
Children wave the Tricolour through a mustard field in Sivasagar on Tuesday.
Guwahati, Jan 26 : A bomb blast damaged rail tracks in Dima Hasao, suspected militants opened fire on a bus injuring three persons in adjoining Karbi Anglong and explosives were recovered in Kamrup and Baksa districts today, signalling the return of trouble to the two hill districts and compounding security concerns on the eve of Republic Day. The occasion has been boycotted by six outfits, including Ulfa.
Dispur has issued fresh alerts to all district headquarters in view of growing threats from subversive groups to disrupt normal life.
Police sources in Haflong said the blast occurred when a Lumding-bound goods train with 16 wagons was slowly trundling over railway bridge number 292, about 200 metres long, around 12.30pm when the explosion rocked the area. The bomb was a crude one placed under the track a few minutes before it exploded. There was, however, no casualty.
The blast, the second of its kind in the last two days, comes less than a day of the withdrawal of the 100-hour Dima Hasao district bandh — called by the NC Hills Indigenous Students’ Forum demanding the bifurcation of the district — after a meeting between the Dima Haso administration and student leaders. The bandh started on January 21.
Hours earlier, the newly floated Karbi Peoples Liberation Tigers fired on a Dimapur-bound bus inside Deopani reserve forest of Bokajan subdivision in Karbi Anglong district around 5.30am, 30 minutes after the start of the 36-hour district bandh called by the rebel outfit.
Bokajan police said two persons, including 11-year-old Disaid Masai and Neikho Angami, were seriously injured in the attack. Bus driver Ino Singh was also injured by glass shards. The site is 35km from Bokajan subdivision.
The injured were rushed to two separate hospitals in Dimapur. This is the second such incident in the border subdivision in the last three days. On Sunday, suspected Kuki militants gunned down a Kuki ginger trader.
A joint team of security forces recovered a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) from near a bridge at Parakuchi village near Rangiya in Kamrup district. Police suspect the IED, weighing more than 2kg, was planted by Ulfa militants. Explosive experts later defused the bomb.
The recovery comes a day after Ulfa warned that “Indians” would have to suffer if any more Assamese youth were killed by security forces.
The Northeast Frontier Railway cancelled the Avadh Assam Express till January 31 on security grounds.
In Tamulpur, a 7kg explosive packed inside a polythene bag, including 3kg RDX, was recovered from a Tamulpur-Rangiya bus at Bogajuli in Tamulpur subdivision of Baksa district.
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