Two killed, 19 hurt in rebel attacks in India's Assam
Source: Reuters
(Updates with more explosions) GUWAHATI, India, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Two people, including a local politician, were killed and at least 19 wounded in a series of blasts and a shooting in India's revolt-torn northeastern state of Assam, police said on Sunday. Police blamed the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which was also held responsible for the massacre of 72 migrant labourers earlier this month. The ULFA, fighting for Assam's independence, has stepped up violence since peace talks with New Delhi failed last year. Fifteen people were wounded in an explosion in a market in Barpeta district, 140 km (90 miles) west of Assam's main city Guwahati on Sunday, shortly after two men on a motorcycle hurled a grenade in the same area, killing one person and injuring two. "This is again the work of the ULFA and massive search operations have been launched in that area to catch the militants," a police official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters by telephone. Earlier in the day, explosives hidden in a motorcycle blew up in the parking area of the New Bongaigaon railway station in western Assam, wounding two people. In a separate incident, suspected ULFA militants shot dead a district-level ruling Congress party leader in Digboi town in eastern Assam late on Saturday night, police said. Violence has flared in oil- and timber-rich Assam in recent months after talks between representatives of the rebel group and the Indian government failed to make headway last year. Four people were killed and 17 wounded in separate blasts in the state last week while in the worst attack in recent years, 72 labourers, who were not from the state, were killed by suspected ULFA militants earlier this month. The ULFA revolt has killed more than 20,000 people since it began in 1979.
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