Security personnel stand near the blast site in Guwahati.
Agencies/Guwahati
At least 15 persons were injured, two of them seriously, in a grenade blast yesterday night at the busy Paltan Bazar area near the Guwahati railway station. The blast, suspected to be a handiwork of the banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), took place when police was checking vehicles near the station at G S Road.
The injured included two police home guard personnel.
“The blast took place at 7.55pm near the Paltan Bazar police station, which is next to the railway station. We have to investigate who did this, but inputs say it is ULFA,” Kamrup (metro) deputy commissioner Ashutosh Agnihotri told reporters. “Fifteen persons were injured. Of them, two are serious. All the injured have been taken to GMC Hospital,” Agnihotri said.
Guwahati’s senior superintendent of police A P Tiwari said the area normally remains crowded. However, the area was not as crowded at the time of the blast as it was a Sunday.
“According to witnesses, two youths came on a motorcycle and lobbed a grenade. However, we can confirm this only after a detailed investigation,” the police said.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi condemned the incident and asked the district administration to identify the culprits and take necessary action.
The chief minister had recently stated that ULFA militants were trying to carry out subversive activities in the run-up to the Independence Day.
The chief minister cancelled his official visit to South Africa, scheduled earlier this week, after violent incidents elsewhere in the state.
On Tuesday and Wednesday last, militants had triggered three blasts in Lakhimpur and Karbi Anglong districts of the state, killing one person and injuring several others. The spurt in violence is attributed to the anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam. The police has subsequently sounded an alert across the state.