Guwahati: Banned ULFA-I’s claim about bombs being planted at 24 locations across Assam sent security forces into a tizzy on Thursday.
According to reports, bomb disposal squads were rushed to all the places mentioned by ULFA (I). “Bomb disposal squads, metal detectors and sniffer dogs have been dispatched to every location. So far we have not got any information on recovery of bombs,” a senior officer at Assam Police headquarters told PTI.
Police also closed all roads in and around the places in Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Nagaon, Lakhimpur Sivasagar, Nagaon, Nalbari, Tamulpur, Tinsukia and Golaghat districts and also Ashram Road, Panbazar, Jorabat, Bhetapara, Maligaon and Rajgarh in the capital city. An open field at Last Gate in Dispur, near Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, other ministers’ official residences and Satgaon road towards the Army cantonment in Narengi have been mentioned in the list.
Some local police officials in Nagaon, Lakhimpur and Sivasagar, later claimed to have recovered some “bomb-like materials” from the spots, the agency report added.
An email purportedly from the ULFA (I) said that the group wanted to demonstrate its strength by carrying out bomb blasts across the state from 6 am to 12 noon on Independence Day, but called it off due to ‘technical glitches’. “This to inform the indigenous people of Assam that on behalf of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent), the military protest which was scheduled to be carried out from 6 am to 12 noon on August 15 could not be carried out due to technical glitches. Therefore, the locations of the protests have been made public in view of public safety.”
The places where ULFA (I) claimed to have planted bombs:
1. In an old car lying at the DTO office in Shivsagar
2. Shivsagar BG Road ONGC 5th gate crossing the old ambulance on the roadside
3. Lakua Tin Ali, near the police station
4. Assam State Transport Corporation Dibrugarh, in an old bus
5. Assam State Transport Corporation Lakhimpur, in an old bus
6. In the old NHPC vehicle at the parade ground (A Team Field) near the Lakhimpur Superintendent of Police
7. Laluk Daily Bazaar, Near IB
8. In the old car covered with trees near Barghat police station
9. They are buried in the ground near the brick quarry found before reaching Aditya Hospital on the way to Nagaon Medical College
10. The open land opposite the Last Gate of Dispur is buried
11. In the transformer board box on the left side of the road leading to Gandhi Mandap
12. Buried near CDA gate on the road to Narengi Army Camp
13. Under the hut crossing the Brahmaputra Industry, Panbazar, Guwahati
14. Near Jorabat Flying Bridge
15. Bhetapara
16. Maligaon
17. Rajgarh
18. Inside an old ambulance near the road leading to Nalbari Old Medical College
19. In the empty space next to the first shop just past the SBI Welcome Board on Rangia-Tamulpur Road, Goreswar Chowk, Tamulpur
The exact location at two places in Tinsukia, one place in Dibrugarh and two places in Golaghat-Sarupathar could not be determined.
Earlier, the ULFA and the Yung Aung faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland had called for a total shutdown in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh on August 15.
