1 killed, 19 hurt in Assam blasts

A minor was killed and 19 other persons, including four Central Reserve Police Force jawans, were injured in two separate incidents of grenade blasts in Assam on Monday as violence continued to rock the state in the run up to Independence Day.

The 12-year-old boy, Vinay Gupta was killed when suspected United Liberation Front of Asom militants hurled a grenade at a CRPF patrol party in Upper Assam's oil refinery town of Digboi in Tinsukia district on Monday night. Fifteen other persons including four CRPF jawans were injured in the grenade attack. The CPRF party was keeping vigil at the main crossroads in the country's oldest refinery township.

In another incident, four civilians were injured when militants threw a grenade at a market in Mahur in North Cachar Hill district of Assam on Monday afternoon. The market is located about 200 ft away from Mahur police station.

The injured were identified as Dulan Nath (22), Nipu Chanda (26), Alok Banik (36) and Ilu Kambe (18). All of them were rushed to the government civil hospital at the district headquarters in Haflong.

Police suspected the hand of a tribal militant group called Black Widow in the incident at Mahur. The Black Widow is an offshoot of the Dimasa militant group, Dima Halam Daogah, which is now in truce with government and engaged in a peace process. A faction of the DHD opposed to the peace process broke away to form the Black Widow.

Meanwhile, the People's Committee for Peace Initiative in Assam, a front of the ULFA, lauched a fortnight-long agitation throughout Assam demanding that the government facilitate direct negotiation with the militant group.

The PCPIA held a sit-in demonstration in the state and took out a torchlight procession on Monday evening all over Assam to press for their demand.

The organisation criticised the incumbent Congress government in the state led by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for trying to gain political mileage out of the ULFA insurgency problem instead of trying to find a solution to it.

In a statement, the PCPIA said the army and police, instead of trying to create a congenial atmosphere to help the peace initiative to progress in the right direction, continued to kill ULFA militants in 'fake encounters'.