Skip to content Skip to navigation

Blast in the Time of Festival: 5 dead, 20 injured

Guwahati: In yet another ‘handiwork,’ ULFA explodes a powerful bomb in the busy Machkhowa areas on Saturday morning at around 7-30 which left four people dead and more than twenty injured.

The blast that rocks again in the time of the grand Ambubachi mela atop Kamakhya and Asian Athletic Grand Prix at Sarusajai, took place in front of a mosque. All those four were killed on the spot.

The bomb was placed beside a small tea stall at the daily fruit and vegetable market. Most of the vendors and visitors were not present in the morning when the bomb exploded.

The injured people have been admitted to the nearby hospital for treatment by the people who rushed to the spot hearing the huge sound the blast made. The conditions of four of these people are critical.

Immediately after the incident, police and top ranked police and civil officials including the Deputy Commissioner Abinash Joshi arrived in the spot and started investigation. Later talking to the reporters on the spot, Mr Joshi says the blast is a handiwork of ULFA.

Meanwhile, the city police beefs up security arrangement in view of the grand fair and festival at the Kahakhya temple and also to ensure security to the athletes across the Asian countries in view of the 16th Asian Grand Prix. The event is inaugurated on Saturday by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

Panic spreads among those who gatecrash the Kamakhya temple premises to participate in the on going Ambubashi fair. These people have arrived in the fair spot from the last week.

Comments

A. R.'s picture

The explosion took place at Machkhowa and that too in front of a mosque at 5.30 A.M. and not at 7.30 A.M. The time 5.30 A.M. of Muslim Fajar Salah( morning prayer ) Immediately after the incident, police and top ranked police and civil officials including the Deputy Commissioner Abinash Joshi arrived in the spot and started investigation. Later talking to the reporters on the spot, Mr Joshi says the blast is a handiwork of ULFA. How can A. Joshi imediately blame ULFA without proper investigation. This is second blast in Muslim area within weeks. The last week was - The explosion took place at a predominantly Muslim area in village Gulutuk in Kamrup district, 50 km from Guwahati. The Guluktuk blast - "The blast was carried out at the behest of the RSS and was executed by the organisation's youth wing with Abhijit Sarma as the kingpin," ULFA spokesman Raju Baruah said in a statement received by IANS. "Sarma is a member of RSS's youth wing," the statement said. How can a place which is 100% Muslim - a bomb blast ? This is the main question which the local people's should think.

Pages

Add new comment

Assamese Translator

Assam Times seeks English to Assamese translators!
Join our volunteer team.
Email editor@assamtimes.org.

Random Stories

Akhil calls upon people to protest against the CAA unitedly

10 Feb 2020 - 5:43pm | AT News
Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity(KMSS)leader Akhil Gogoi has called upon the peiople of Assam to protest against the controversial Citizenship(Amendment) Act unitedly. Gogoi, who was arrested by the...

Mr RS Sharma new ONGC Chief

7 Jul 2007 - 8:55am | editor
The government has issued formal orders appointing Mr R S Sharma as the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), India’s biggest oil producer. Sharma was...

Stage set for Gogoi's surgeries

2 Aug 2010 - 1:54pm | editor
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is all set to undergo two complicated bypass surgeries. A team of cardiologists led by Dr Ramakanta pandais closely monitoring Gogoi's health at the Asian Heart...

Lesson for kids

4 Mar 2011 - 2:07am | Abdul Gani
It was a different sort of experience for the school kids as they accompanied their parents to have a look at the ghastly sights which could be outcome of bad habits. An exhibition showcasing the...

Other Contents by Author

A brainstorming consultation on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) was organised by Aaranyak, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Indian NGOs Forum Conservation of Biological Diversity (INFC) here on August 26 last in collaboration with National Biodiversity Authority (NBA).Aaranyak hosted the session at Indian Institute of Bank Management (IIBM), Guwahati. The timing of this meeting is consciously chosen prior to the international meetings of the CBD that are to be held in India through October 2012. The Government of India for the first time is hosting a Conference of the Parties (COP).In order to facilitate compliance to the Convention, a global forum where governments, non-...
Atleast 10 people sustained injury when Ulfa blew out an oil rig in Tinsukia on Saturday. Fire tenders took three hours to douse the fire. Meanwhile Ulfa has claimed the responsibility of the attack on OIL-owned rig. The explosion took place at the oil rig based at Chandmari near Makum in the wee hour where local residents came to hear a huge sound.
The United Liberation Front of Asom claimed to have blown off an oil well in Tinsukia district of Assam causing panic among the local residents on Saturday. The incident took place at Chandmari near Makum where the Oil India Limited-owned rig caught fire following a huge sound in the wee hours. No injury or casualty has been been reported so far. According to the OIL authorities, the fire was reported around 1 at midnight. Several fire tenders deployed there took nearly 5 hours to douse the blaze. Later the well was sealed. Initial investigation suggests it an attempt to steal oil from the well. The thieves made a hole in the oil well's high pressure `xmas tree' valve causing hydro carbon...
Money mattered in the murder of a 40 year old woman in Guwahati where a teenager boy killed his mother recently. Identified as Ankit Saikia the teenager boy and his friend Ranjit Gaur strangulated his mother Puja Saikia who was a caretaker at a Guwahati based building.
Tension erupted near Konadhara in Guwahati following the sudden death of a person at a n road accident on Friday. The incident took place in the evening when a person was crushed to death a person by a truck just near Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s official residence. Immediately after it, local residents in large number came out to the street and attacked the truck. Some others blocked the road. The situation was brought under control only after the arrival of police.
Sivasagar erupts in a massive move to flush out the Bangladeshi immigrants from the district when over ten thousand people took to the streets on Friday. Led by AASU leaders, cutting across party affiliations, thousands of people spilled to the streets demanding immediate steps to detect and deport the immigrants hiding in the district. Some others gave moral support by standing on the both sides of the road in the town from the Boarding field to AT Road through Hemchandra Baruah Road and Temple Road.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday expressed grave concern over the simmering communal tension in BTAD areas and called it is a major cause of worry for the entire country. Speaking to mediapersons on board to New Delhi from Tehran, he said that what worried him more was the ethnic clashes in Assam. “When I look at the future of our country, the way things have gone in Assam, the ethnic tensions that have disturbed peace in Assam, that part of Assam which is in Bodoland territorial administration”, he said.
Sonitpur media fraternity on Friday demanded ban on the All Assam Minority Students Union along with 30 other organisations alleging attack during their statewide bandh on August 28. Led by a group of scribes, over 7000 people took out a procession in Tezpur and submitted a memorandum to Governor and Chief Minister through the district Deputy Commissioner raising the demand. The media people further demanded immediate arrest of those responsible for the attack on the media persons.The journalist organisations included the Sonitpur Journalist Union, Journalist Federation of Assam, Sonitpur District Journalist Association and Sonitpur Press Club.
Former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Friday said that the ethnic clash would not be totally over until and unless the Assam Accord is not implemented in letter and spirit. Talking to reporters during a party procession in Guwahati, Mahanta who leads the regional party said that after 27 years of it being signed on August 15, 1985, the agreement had not yet been implemented. The party leaders demanded immediate steps for detection and deportation of illegal foreigners in accordance with the Assam Accord.
The Asom Gana Prishad on Friday demanded Prime Minister's intervention to make an end to the bloodbath bath in BTAD areas and Dhubri. Party leader who took out a procession from Ambari on Friday, submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister through the Kamrup (Metro) district Deputy Commissioner in Guwahati raising the demand.Talking to reporters party president and former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta blamed it all on the government of failing to efficiently deal with the situation in BTAD. They alleged that Dispur had no plan and strategy to counter the recent violence in the state known for unity in diversity.