/ 26 August 2004

Grenade explodes at crowded Indian market

A grenade exploded at a crowded market in the north-eastern Assam state of India on Thursday, injuring seven people hours after two bomb blasts elsewhere in the state left four dead and 39 others wounded, police said.

Suspected militants from the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) hurled the grenade at the market in Tangla town, 60km north of Gauhati, Assam’s capital, said police Inspector General Khagen Sharma.

Earlier on Thursday, four people died and 39 others were wounded when a passenger bus and another carrying paramilitary soldiers and their families were blown up in separate explosions elsewhere in the state.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but police blamed Ulfa rebels.

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”. — Sapa-AP