KOLKATA, India, Sept 30 (Reuters) - At least five people were killed and more than 25 wounded when three bombs exploded on Sunday in India's restive northeastern state of Assam, which has seen a spurt in separatist violence, police said.

Those killed and wounded were non-Assamese people living in the oil- and tea-rich state wracked by an insurgency that wants a separate homeland for ethnic Assamese, a senior police officer told Reuters by telephone.

The non-Assamese and security forces have been a frequent target in the decades old conflict.

The first explosion took place at about 6 p.m. local time (1230 GMT) in Tinsukia town, east of the state's main city Guwahati, when a bomb near a Hindu temple killed three people, officer Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said.

Another blast followed in Dum Duma town in the same district, killing two people, while a third bomb set alight a gas pipeline in Tengakhat, also east of Guwahati.

"We suspect ULFA (separatists) but we are yet to find out," Mahanta said.

The United Liberation Front of Asom has been fighting for an independent homeland for Assamese people since 1979. More than 20,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

It has stepped up violence in the region since peace talks with the government failed last year.

Thirteen people were killed and 15 wounded in suspected attacks by ULFA militants days before India's independence day anniversary last month.

And in one of their biggest strikes, the group was blamed for killing about 55 people, most of them non-Assamese, in a wave of attacks in January.

The ULFA blames India's federal government in far off New Delhi of plundering the state's rich resources and neglecting the local economy.

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