At least 61 people were killed and over 300 injured in serial blasts in
India's northeast state Assam yesterday, officials said.
As many as 12 bombs went off in less than an hour in Assam's major city
Guwahati and the western districts of Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon. More
than 300 people were injured, many of them are in a critical condition, a police
spokesman said. Five blasts targeted Guwahati's busy market areas. "The area was
teeming with people, officer goers, shoppers and vendors when a very big
explosion took place," a witness said, according to the Indo-Asian News Service
(IANS).
Thick black smoke billowed into the sky as rescue workers rushed in to
control the flames, the NDTV report showed.
It was one of the worst terror attacks in northeast India.
"Preliminary investigations show that the bombs were strapped on bicycles and
the explosives were packed with highly inflammable substances that led to big
fires soon after the blasts," said the Assam government spokesperson.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the explosions.
Some officials of the Assam government pointed the suspicion towards the
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Assam's militant group, but the group
denied the charge, the report said.
"People should fight terrorism unitedly," India's Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh said after the news came in.
India's political leaders, including President Pratibha Patil also condemned
the terrorist attacks.
More than 600 people have died in terror attacks in the last six years in
India, and 400 in the last two years alone, the IANS report said.
At least 17 people were killed and over 30 injured in a powerful bomb blast
in another Indian northern city Imphal on Oct.21 evening.