Updated at 9.30pm
GUWAHATI: A bomb attack by suspected ULFA militants killed two persons and critically injured nine others at a busy market on Wednesday.
The bomb, described by Special Superintendent of Police Nitul Gogoi as a timer device, was hidden in a carton of vegetables and exploded at 6.50 pm in the wholesale vegetable market at Ganeshguri near the capital complex of Dispur.
The blast critically injured 11 people, two of whom succumbed to their wounds in hospital.
Soon after the attack, utter confusion prevailed in the area with panic-stricken people fleeing and shopkeepers downing shutters.
The area was cordoned off by police and people assisted in taking the injured to the nearby Gauhati Medical College Hospital and Dispur Polyclinic Hospital.
The market is located near the Indian Airlines office and UCO Bank adjacent to a high-security complex where the offices of the chief ministers and his cabinet colleagues as well as the assembly and state secretariat are located.
The site of the attack was spattered with the blood of victims and vegetables lay strewn around. The blast shook the area and broke windows of some nearby buildings.
Intelligence sources had earlier warned of possible attacks by the banned ULFA in lower Assam following army operations against its cadres in Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Sibsagar districts in the upper part of the state.
The blast took place a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered a tough message to ULFA militants that there would be no compromise if they resorted to violence and assured foolproof security to Hindi-speaking people, 70 of whom were gunned down recently by the banned group.
The army launched a major offensive against the ULFA in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in the wake of the killings.
