I-day blasts in Assam: Two teenagers picked up for planting bombs

Tinsukia, Aug 17: Two teenagers have been picked up by the police for allegedly planting bombs in four areas of Assam's Tinsukia district which was rocked by serial explosions on Independence Day.

Two boys, aged 15 and 16 years, were picked up from No. 3 Kakojan yesterday on the basis of information gathered from Kakojan area, Tinsukia district Superintendent of Police Mugdha Jyoti Mahanta told PTI today.

According to the SP, he boys, who are students of class nine and ten in a school at Kakojan, had confessed on August 11 to planting the bombs under instructions of ULFA-I cadre at Laipuli, No 6 line of Budlabeta Tea Estate, No 8 line of Sokreting TE and one near Doomdooma bypass RCC bridge, Mahanta said.

The explosives, all programme devices, were set up four days before Independence Day and the boys had used a motorcycle for planting them, the SP said.

The boys had also said four ULFA-I cadre belonging to Morigaon, Jorhat, Golaghat and Sivasagar districts had engaged them for planting the bombs and that three of the insurgents were carrying AK assault rifles.

On August 11, an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded inside a drain along Philobari bypass road near Budalbeta T E. On Independence Day, a series of five bomb explosions rocked several places in Tinsukia and Charaido districts.

In Tinsukia district, an explosion was triggered near Indira Gandhi School at Laipuli area on the outskirts of the district headquarters. This was followed by another explosion in line no 6 of Budlabeta TE of the area and the third IED was set off at Masuwa.

The fourth one exploded at Gamtumati in Philobari area where ULFA-I militants on the night of August 12 had shot dead two persons and injured six others in indiscriminate firing at Bahbon village besides exploding an IED the day before.

PTI