ULFA strikes Hindi speaking people in upper Asom

Guwahati, May 4 (UNI) The ULFA onslaught on Hindi-speaking people continued unabated with the outfit triggering a powerful blast in the heart of the business township this morning injuring eight of them.

Police said they were injured when an IED kept in a Maruti gypsy, parked in Siding Bazar in Chamber Road of Tinsukia, went off at 0730 hours. While three of the critically injured-- Balakram Balmiki, Abdul Ali and Dharma Kumar, were rushed to the Asom Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh, seven shops and a couple of vehicles parked nearby were also damaged in the blast.

Police said two gas cylinders also kept in the vehicle gave the explosion a more devastating effect. Had the blast occurred few hours later when the market opens, the casualty would have been much higher, souces added.

However, eyewitnesses said two suspected youths had parked the, bearing an Arunachal Pradesh registration number, at the area an hour before the blast.

Barely two hours after the blast, agitators, mostly Hindi-speaking, under the banner of Bhojpuri Students' Union blocked the National Highway 37 at Makum. The protesters flayed the administration for failing to provide adequate security to them.

Senior officials of the district administration later pacified the agitators.

Security arrangements were tightened in the district and search operations intensified. No one has been arrested so far, police said.

Yesterday, the Army had recovered an IED weighing about 45 kg placed under a culvert at Chikajan in Hukanpukhuri area under Tinsukia district.

On January 20, ULFA militants had triggered a blast in the same area in the insurgency-dominated district, killing two persons and injuring several others.

UNI