Posted on 08/26/2004 10:31:55 AM PDT by yonif
Bombs ripped through two buses, killing four people and wounding 39 others, and a grenade blast injured seven more Thursday as separatist violence surged in India's northeastern Assam state, police said.
A powerful explosion later rocked Assam's capital, Gauhati, but police reported no casualties.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but police blamed rebels from the United Liberation Front of Asom.
Assam's top elected official, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, said the rebels, who have been fighting security forces since 1979 for a sovereign Assam, are now "waging a war on civilians."
The first bomb went off when a bus stopped in the town of Gossaigaon to let passengers off, killing one person and injuring at least 33 others, Sharma said. It was hidden in an unclaimed piece of luggage.
All the injured were hospitalized and several were in critical condition, he said. Gossaigaon is 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of Gauhati.
Hours later, another bomb exploded near Satipara village, blowing up a bus carrying Border Security Force soldiers and their families. The bomb was planted under a culvert, Sharma said.
Two soldiers and a child were killed, and six others were wounded, Sharma said. The soldiers were traveling with their families on holiday, he said.
Satipara, which is 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Gauhati, is a stronghold of ULFA militants.
Later Thursday, suspected ULFA rebels hurled a grenade at a crowded market in Tangla town near Gauhati, wounding seven civilians, two of them seriously, said Inspector General of Police Khagen Sharma.
An explosion also hit Gauhati, but there were no casualties, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. The explosion shook nearby buildings and people ran out of their homes in panic, but there were no reports of any damage, the officer said.
Thursday's attacks followed two earlier incidents of violence this month.
On Wednesday, suspected rebels exploded a grenade outside a movie theater, wounding eight people in another town in Assam. One of them died in a hospital Thursday, police said.
On Aug. 15, India's Independence Day, a blast ripped through the grounds of a local college in Dhemaji, a remote town in Assam, where a parade was being held, killing 15 people.
Gogoi said although his earlier offer for peace talks with the rebels remains open, the government will "take firm action against the ULFA if it continues to spur violence."
Separately, seven separatist militants belonging to different groups, including the ULFA, surrendered to police on Thursday, police officer Sharma said.
Assam is a state on the eastern front of India, populated by a Mongoloid race, largely Hindu and Christian. Trouble started when Bangladeshi illegal immigrants who were Muslim, settled into the state, changing its demographics to a large extent.
And don't forget the hand of the ISI.
ANd, all of a sudden, Bangladesh looks precarious, too.
But the Indians have handled Kashmir for years, they'll take care of these terrorists, too, albeit with the requisite costs in blood and bodies.
ROPMA
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