15 hurt in blast as Asom observes Anti-Terror Day

Guwahati, May 21: Terror-strucken Asom observed 'Anti-Terrorism Day' today amid sporadic incidents of violence which claimed five lives and injured more than 15 since last night.

Altogether 15 people were injured, two of them critically, when ULFA militants exploded a grenade at the busy Paglastan area in Bongaigaon in lower Asom today.

The Programmable Time Device (PTD), which was kept in a bag on a bicycle, went off near a Hindi school at the busy market place at 0930 hrs.

All the injured had been hospitalised. Two of them, Ajaykanti Sarma(12) and Sambhu Saha (38), were in critical condition.

Last night, suspected ULFA rebels gunned down a Hindi-speaking person at Dhakuakhana in North Lakhimpur district of Upper Asom.

Police said two motorcycle-borne ULFA rebels accosted Sailen Sahu at 2100 hrs, and shot him dead from point blank range.

In another incident, police recovered a powerful bomb at Janata Path in Demow in Sivasagar district last night.

Meanwhile, Nationalist Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants killed four people, including an active member of the main opposition party Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), at Balipara under Rangapara police station of Sonitpur district in central Asom.

AGP activist Rajen Narzary and his three guests were kidnapped by the militants from the Saraibari residence of Narzary.

Their slain bodies were found in a jungle at Balipara yesterday.

UNI