INCONSOLABLE: A traumatised relative of a victim breaks down at the Ganeshguri blast site in Guwahati on Thursday.Guwahati: In one of the worst terror strikes in the northeast, 62 people were killed and over 300 injured in 12 high intensity serial blasts that rocked the city and three lower Assam towns — Kokrajhar, Barpeta Road and Bongaigaon — on Thursday morning. The condition of more than 30 people is said to be critical.
In the city, 31 people were killed and about 125 injured in six blasts at Ganeshguri, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court premises near the Deputy Commissioner’s office and Fancybazar near the Panbazar police station.
In Kokrajhar, at least 20 people were killed in three serial blasts that rocked the headquarters town of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), while 12 people were killed in twin blasts in Barpeta Road town of Barpeta district.
No death was reported in the Bongaigaon blast, which left 10 injured.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told journalists after an emergency security review that the government would form a high level task force to probe the blasts.
Curfew was clamped on G.S. Road as the blasts triggered violence in the Ganeshguri locality, close to the capital complex. A mob torched ambulances, fire tenders, police vehicles and a traffic police point, and attacked police personnel in protest against “security failure.” Warning shots were fired in the air. Curfew was lifted at 5.30 p.m.
Inspector-General (Special Branch) Khagen Sharma told The Hindu that the needle of suspicion was pointed to jihadi elements. “However, we are not ruling out the possibility of the involvement of the United Liberation Front of Asom in the form of logistics support.”
All the blasts occurred at busy public places between 11 and 11.30 a.m. One of the bombs went off in the busy Ganeshguri locality, very close to the high security zone of the capital complex.
It was a gory sight at the blast sites in the city — mangled remains of vehicles, severed limbs, and the injured crying for help. Thick black smoke billowed for hours as a number of vehicles caught fire.
The IGP said initial investigation pointed to the possibility of a car bomb being used. A team of the Intelligence Bureau and explosives experts of the National Security Guards are scheduled to arrive to probe the blasts.
Terming the incidents acts of cowardice by anti-national extremist elements, Mr. Gogoi directed the law-enforcing agencies to take immediate action to nab the culprits and to deal with the situation very firmly.
He directed them to take precautionary security measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents. Mr. Gogoi appealed to the people to remain on high alert and maintain calm.
The ULFA has denied its involvement in the blasts.
A statement e-mailed by the outfit’s self-styled lieutenant and member of the central publicity unit, Anjan Barthakur, alleged that “the blasts have been triggered by Indian occupation forces to scuttle efforts by the ULFA to seek a peaceful political solution to India-Asom conflict.”
(NOTE:Over 300 injured in 12 high intensity blasts; hand of jihadi elements suspected)
17 killed in Imphal blast
Imphal: At least 17 people were killed and more than 30 injured on Tuesday night when unidentified militants exploded a bomb attached to a two-wheeler near a police commando complex in Imphal West district.
Sources said the victims included a few security personnel. While 13 people died on the spot, four succumbed to injuries in hospital. The condition of many of the injured is critical, sources said.20 killed as 5 bomb explosions rock Delhi
NEW DELHI: Twenty people were killed and about 100 injured in a series of five bomb explosions that rocked busy marketplaces in the Capital on Saturday.
The first explosion took place at Karol Bagh at 6.10 p.m.; two bombs were triggered at Connaught Place; and two more in the bustling M-Block market of Greater Kailash.
Initial investigations revealed that the improvised explosive devices were configured using ammonium nitrate. Timer devices were used for synchronising the explosions that occurred between 6.10 and 6.40 p.m. Eight persons were killed at Connaught Place and a live bomb was defused outside the Regal cinema in the heart of the Capital. Two more bombs were found at Central Park at Connaught Place and at India Gate.
In an e-mail to the media, the terror outfit, Indian Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the explosions.
A red alert was sounded in the Capital.
While the Centre announced an ex gratia of Rs. 3 lakh each for the next of kin of the deceased, the State government announced Rs. 5 lakh for each of the dead, besides Rs.50,000 for those injured.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit visited the injured at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
The injured were rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia, Sir Ganga Ram, Jessa Ram, Lady Hardinge and Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash Narayan hospitals. Some were taken to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences.
At Karol Bagh, the bomb was kept in or near a three-wheeler. The blast ripped the vehicle apart. An autorickshaw parked nearby was tossed in the air and it fell on the other side of the road. A woman sitting in the vehicle and several bystanders were seriously injured.
Puran Kumar, whose relatives were injured in the blast, said he was in his house when he heard a loud explosion. “I rushed out and saw badly injured people lying on the road writhing in pain and screaming for help. Among them were some of my relatives. Initially, we thought that it was a cylinder blast,” said a shocked Puran.
Another resident, Nanak, said: “A woman lay near the autorickshaw with her face smashed. All that was left on her face were her two eyes.”
A bomb kept in a dustbin near Gate No. 1 of the Barakhamba Road metro station went off around 6.35 p.m.
In Central Park, a bomb kept in a bin exploded five minutes later, causing injuries to over 40 people. Deepak, who runs a garment shop in Connaught Place, said he himself rushed over a dozen injured people to hospital. Most of the injured were women and children.
Two “low-intensity” bombs planted in a dustbin and on a cycle in the busy M-Block Market of Greater Kailash went off at 6.30 p.m. and 6.40 p.m. A woman was injured.
17 BLASTS ROCK AHMEDABAD
WAVES OF ATTACKS: Two victims of a bomb explosion in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
AHMEDABAD: Forty people were killed and over 100 injured when serial blasts struck different parts of Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s major commercial nerve centre, on Saturday evening. The State capital was plunged into chaos for hours after the terror attacks.
As the number of the dead and injured kept rising, police could not confirm the final tally till late in the evening. Chief Minister Narendra Modi, after an emergency Cabinet meeting, said 29 people died and over 100 were injured. Both he and Urban Development Minister Nitin Patel, who visited some of the affected areas, did not rule out the possibility of the casualties going up. For, the condition of many of the injured was critical.
Unconfirmed reports said the worst attack occurred near the trauma centre of the government civil hospital, where at least 25 people, including two doctors, were killed. Some eyewitness accounts claimed that it was a “human bomb” attack. The body was said to have been shattered but the incident was not confirmed by the police, who put the casualties in the hospital attack at not fewer than six.
The reports pieced together by the police indicated 17 blasts in 10 different areas and all, except the minority-dominated Sarkhej and Juhapura, were in the labour-dominated eastern parts of the old city. Most of the blasts occurred in crowded and congested areas during peak evening hour traffic.
About 40 minutes after the first round of blasts, bombs went off near the trauma centre of the civil hospital and the main portico of the L.G. General Hospital in Maninagar, even as the injured were being rushed to the hospitals.
A site of devastation in the city.
The first blast was reported from the Hatkeshwar locality in the Maninagar area at 6.38 p.m.
Thereafter bombs went off at 10 other places, all within the next five to seven minutes. About an hour later, three more blasts were reported from Maninagar and surrounding areas. Police said the injured were admitted to different hospitals in the city.
“Sleeper cell”Police see the hand of the “sleeper cell” of the SIMI in the carnage.
Similar to the Jaipur blasts, the bombs were planted on cycles, but unlike as in the Rajasthan capital, only old cycles were used here, apparently to avoid being identified.
The preliminary reports from the sites indicated that gelatin rods in tiffin boxes or in cloth bags with timers and tied to cycles were left behind in crowded areas, possibly minutes before the blasts. A couple of vegetable vendors, admitted to hospital with injuries, claimed to have seen a person leaving behind a cycle before the blast.
Most of the blasts occurred in crowded and congested points like traffic circles, near a Hanuman temple where a large number of devotees turn out on Saturdays or near bus stops.
Within minutes after the Hatkeshwar blast, bombs serially kept going off near the Sardar Patel diamond market in Bapunagar, Narol, Ishanpur, Saraspur, Sarangpur, Raipur, Sarkhej, Juhaapura and later at the civil and L. G. hospitals.
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