Four people, including a woman were injured in a low-intensity blast on an arterial thoroughfare close to Fancy Bazaar — a pre-Durga Puja shopping destination — in Guwahati on Saturday.
Though the militant outfit United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) has claimed responsibility for the blast, police ruled it out due to lack of evidence.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Rana Bhuyan said the material that caused the explosion was buried in the sand beyond a wall that separates Mahatma Gandhi Road from the ghat or Brahmaputra riverbank close to the Sukreswar Temple.
The blast that happened a little after 12 noon damaged a city bus and a couple of two-wheelers. Shards of glass from damaged windows of the bus injured two of the passengers. Kalpajyoti Talukdar and Taifuddin Ahmed. The other two, Shanku Das and Binita Das, were on a two-wheeler.
“They were sent to the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury hospital nearby and treated for minor injuries,” Mr. Bhuyan said.
While the police played down the blast, ULFA-I’s military chief Paresh Baruah called up some local TV channels to claim his outfit triggered the blast through remote control.
A week ago, Assam’s Additional Director General of Police (Special Branch) Pallab Bhattacharya had said there were possibilities of subversive strikes by “terror groups” such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen during the festive season beginning with Durga Puja from October 15.
The threat perception came from the arrest of at least eight alleged members and sympathisers of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen from Assam and Meghalaya after one of its members, Kamruz Zaman, was caught in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur.
“We have asked the security forces to be alert during the festivity to thwart the designs of unwanted elements including extremists,” Mr. Bhattacharya had said