ULFA and Bodo Rebels starts offensive in the Northeast India with help from Pakistan’s ISI and Al-Queda
Sudhir Chadda, Special Correspondent
October 03, 2004

 

Soldiers and civilians stand by the site of a bomb blast at the railway station in Dimapur

The Northeast India is under flames! The Bodo militants kill 13 and injure 23 in Assam. The ULFAs blasted two bombs in Dimapur, Nagaland killing more than 35 and injuring scores others. Manipur is already under flames and some separatists are ready to make bigger problems there.

In recent days suspicious activities from Bangladeshi citizens in Kashmir and Pakistan’s ISI movements in Northeast India made it clear that ISI and Al-Queda may be behind pushing the separatists in the Northeast into a major offensive against India.

The banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants struck terror in lower Assam killing 13 people and injuring 23 in separate incidents on Saturday, while one of its cadres was shot dead by security forces. A group of five heavily armed NDFB guerillas stormed the Makrijhora weekly market on National Highway 31 in Dhubri district at around 5.30 pm and opened fire killing 11 people on the spot and seriously injured four others. Dhubri Superintendent of Police Dr L R Bishnoi said the ultras stormed the busy weekly market, which is on the borders of a dense jungle, when it was thronged by people. They opened fire from automatic weapons killing 11 people and fled into the jungle. Four others who were injured have been admitted to Dhubri Civil Hospital, he said. In a simultaneous attack, a separate group of NDFB militants fired on a truck travelling from Guwahati to Bihar and injured three people inside the vehicle, official sources said. In another incident in neighbouring Chirang district on the Indo-Bhutan border, the ultras exploded a bomb at Santipur Bazaar under Runikhata border outpost, killing two persons, the sources said. The 16 injured were admitted to hospital at Dhaligaon. Last night the security forces shot dead one NDFB ultra in Kokrajhar district, they added.

Two bomb blasts in northeastern India Saturday killed 35 people and wounded scores of others.

One large explosion ripped through a train station in Dimapur, where most of the casualties occurred, police said. The other detonated at a nearby market.

Dimapur is the capital of Nagaland state.

Police are on the scene investigating the explosions. Initial suspicions fall on separatist militants. 

The bombings were the deadliest attack since a cease-fire with the main Naga separatist group began seven years ago. However police suspect some separatist groups are still operating in the area.