GUWAHATI: Suspected militants set off two bombs outside a police station in India’s restive northeast on Sunday, killing seven people and wounding more than 50, police said.
Five people died instantly after two blasts went off within minutes of each other outside the station in Nalbari town near the Assam state capital, Guwahati, a local police official said.
Two people died later in a hospital, he said. The official said what officials had earlier reported was a third bomb in a market a few miles away, turned out to be a firecracker.
At least 52 people were wounded in the two blasts, said Bhaskar Mahanta, Assam’s inspector general of police. Mahanta said authorities suspect the separatist group United Liberation Front of Asom is behind the blasts.
No group claimed responsibility. The bombers had parked two bicycles fitted with carriers packed with explosives outside the Nalbari police station, which is located in a congested part of the town, Mahanta said. These went off, killing passers-by and wounding the others. Mahanta said police had received intelligence reports suggesting that the ULFA was planning to avenge last week’s arrest of two of the group’s leaders.
Last week, suspected ULFA rebels triggered a powerful explosion, derailing a freight train and setting more than a dozen oil tanker railcars on fire in Assam.
