By Syed Zarir Hussain Jan 23, 2007, 19:58 GMT
Guwahati, Jan 23 (IANS) At least one person was killed and 20 wounded in five separate explosions, including a blast on a goods train, in Assam Tuesday, as Britain, the US and Australia advised their nationals to keep away from India's restive northeastern state.
There were two explosions Tuesday night in western Assam - a bomb blast in Bongaigaon town and a grenade attack near Baihata Chariali, about 45 km from Guwahati, police said.
'Eight people were wounded in the two attacks. We are awaiting more details from the spot,' said a senior official in the central police control room here.
A blast took place near the crowded Adabari market in Assam's main city of Guwahati around 6.30 p.m.
'A shopkeeper spotted an unidentified can kept near the pavement and while he was trying to dispose the bomb it went off blowing him into pieces,' a police official said.
The blast wounded 12 people, most of them evening shoppers or vendors, who were shifted to a local hospital. 'Three of the injured are in a critical condition,' the official said.
Earlier in the day, separatists triggered two explosions. A police spokesman said there were no casualties in both the blasts although a wagon of the train carrying fertilisers was damaged.
Railway officials said the blast took place near Lailalong in eastern Karbi Anglong district, about 310 km from here.
'A wagon was damaged and a portion of the railway track was blown up in the blast creating a big crater,' T. Rabha, a spokesman for the Northeast Frontier Railways, told IANS.
A packed passenger train was to cross the area soon after.
'The target was definitely the Kamrup Express although the militants failed to plant the bomb in time due to tight security vigil,' the official said.
In the afternoon, suspected separatist guerrillas triggered a powerful explosion near a market in Barabazar in western Assam's Bongaigaon district, about 210 km from here.
'There were no people around the place where the blast took place and hence no casualties,' a police official said.
Two people were injured when rebels lobbed a grenade late Monday at a group of people standing outside a fuel station at Changsari, about 35 km west of Guwahati.
'Two people waiting near the edge of the petrol pump were injured,' a police official said. They were admitted to a hospital.
There have been 12 blasts, including those of Tuesday, in the past one week that have together claimed 10 lives and wounded 62 people in this oil, tea and timber-rich state.
The bombings were preceded by the slaughter Jan 5-8 in eastern Assam by separatist guerrillas of 73 people, 61 of them being Hindi-speaking migrants.
Authorities have blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for the attacks. ULFA has denied its involvement.
'There is no doubt that the explosions are the handiwork of the ULFA,' Guwahati city police chief S.N. Singh told IANS.
The attacks followed threats by ULFA asking migrant workers, most of them from Bihar, to quit Assam on the ground that they were taking away local jobs.
Meanwhile, Britain, the US and Australia have issued advisories asking their nationals to review travel plans to Assam.
'This warden message is issued to alert US citizens travelling to and residing in northeastern India, and especially Assam, of the serious security threat due to a series of recent killings and bomb attacks,' said an alert posted on the website of the US Consulate General in Kolkata.
Similar alerts have been issued by Australia and Britain.
More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam during the past two decades.
© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service
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