Assam: IED recovered on rail tracks ahead of PM's visit

A powerful improvised explosive device was recovered on Thursday on railway tracks at Bijni in Chirang district of Assam on the eve of the 12-hour Assam bandh called by anti-talk faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam to protest Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's day-long visit to Guwahati on Friday.

A police source informed that an IED weighing more than 3 kgs, two detonators and some fused wire were recovered at  Maneswari, at a distance of about one kilometre from Bijni railway station during routine patrolling by a joint team of the Assam police and army personnel. The device was later defused.

Train services were temporarily suspended in the railway section as security personnel launched a massive combing operation on the railway tracks in the area apprehending presence of more such devices.

Meanwhile, security along the railway tracks has been tightened with several trains cancelled or rescheduled in view of the bandh call given by the ULFA. Pilot engines are being run as a precautionary measure ahead of long-distance trains running through the state. It is to prevent the ULFA to target trains to hog headlines in and around the PM's visit.


Meanwhile, with ULFA calling a bandh on April 20 to protest prime minister's day-long

visit, Assam government has directed all concerned to maintain normal functioning of government offices during the bandh period.

Dr Singh is scheduled to visit the city on Friday to participate in the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Assam state assembly.

The prime minister will arrive at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport on the morning of April 20 and immediately proceed to Nehru stadium in the heart of the city in a chopper.

He will then proceed by road to B Barooah Cancer Institute where he will inaugurate two new facilities. He will then visit Dispur where he will inaugurate the platinum jubilee celebrations of Assam state assembly, before returning to New Delhi the same day, official sources said.

Security alert was issued by Assam police who arrested three Guwahati-bound members of ULFA anti-talk faction from Tinsukia and recovered Chinese grenades on Wednesday evening.

Assam police have taken special security measures in view of ULFA bandh in vulnerable districts of upper Assam including Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar and Jorhat and lower Assam districts of Goalpara, Dhubri and Nalbari.